7 

V0 


^          A^^ 


ixc^r 


The  Story  of  Old  Fort  Dearborn 


THE  STORY 


OF 


OLD  FORT  DEARBORN 


BY 

J.  SEYMOUR  Cl  RREY 

GENERAL  HEXEY  DEARBORN. 

Henry  Dearborn  was  born  in  New  Hampshire  in  1751.  He 
was  an  officer  in  the  American  army,  took  part  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  was  present  at  the  capture  of  Burgoy tie's  army 
and  remained  in  the  service  until  the  end  of  the  war  In 
1801  he  waW*^m&WMeUA,V§fr*Mr  'utiffer  President 
Jefferson,  and  held  that  office  for  eight  years. 

In  1812  Dearborn  was  appointed  Major-General  and  did 
excellent  service  on  the  Niagara  frontier  during  the  Second  War 
with  Great  Britain.  John  Wentworth  said  of  him  that  "history 
records  no  other  man  who  was  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill 
the  surrender  of  BurgomtLCUid.CofuwAlUs,  and  then  took  an 
active  part  in  the  War  ra^5®!S'-v. ' ' 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1912 


THE  STORY 

OF 

OLD  FORT  DEARBORN 


BY 

J.  SEYMOUR  CURREY 


WITH  ELEVEN  ILLUSTRATIONS 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1912 


E55C, 


Copyright 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1912 

Published  August,  1912 


V.   F    u»l.L  PRINTING  COMPANY,  CHICAGO 


This  Volume  is  Dedicated  to 
NELLY  KINZIE  GORDON 


PREFACE 

npHERE  were  two  Fort  Dearborns,  the 
-•-  first  one  having  been  built  in  1803.  This 
was  occupied  by  a  garrison  of  United  States 
troops  until  1812,  when  it  was  destroyed  by 
the  Indians  immediately  after  the  bloody 
massacre  of  that  year.  The  second  Fort 
Dearborn  was  built  on  the  site  of  the  former 
one  in  1816,  and  continued  in  use  as  a  mili 
tary  post,  though  at  several  intervals  during 
periods  of  peaceful  relations  with  the  sur 
rounding  tribes  the  garrisons  were  with 
drawn  for  a  time.  In  1836  the  fort  was 
finally  evacuated  by  the  military  forces.  The 
events  narrated  in  the  succeeding  pages  of 
this  volume  concern  the  first  or  Old  Fort 
Dearborn. 

The  name  "  Chicago,"  as  descriptive  of  the 
river  and  its  neighborhood,  was  in  use  for 
more  than  a  century  before  the  first  Fort 
Dearborn  was  built;  it  appears  on  Franque- 
lin's  map  printed  in  1684  as  "  Chekagou," 


PREFACE 

and  is  mentioned  in  various  forms  of  spelling 
in  the  written  and  printed  records  of  that  and 
succeeding  periods.  It  has  been  said  that 
Chicago  is  the  oldest  Indian  town  in  the  West 
of  which  the  original  name  is  retained;  thus 
its  name  enjoys  a  much  greater  antiquity  than 
that  of  Fort  Dearborn,  familiar  as  the  latter 
name  is  in  our  local  annals. 

In  the  course  of  its  history  Chicago  has 
existed  under  three  flags;  first,  under  the 
domination  of  the  French  kings,  from  the  pe 
riod  of  its  discovery  to  the  year  1763,  when, 
after  the  French  and  Indian  War,  it  passed 
into  the  possession  of  the  English.  As  Brit 
ish  territory  it  remained  until  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  when  the  Western  Terri 
tories  were  ceded  by  the  English  to  the  Ameri 
cans  at  the  treaty  of  peace  concluded  in  1783 ; 
and  thus  the  region  in  which  Chicago  is  situ 
ated  finally  came  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 


CONTENTS 

Preface 

PAGE 
I     Wilderness  Days 3 

II     Fortifying   the   Frontier     ...      17 
III     The   Tragedy 95 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

GENERAL    HENRY    DEARBORN     .      .      .     Frontispiece 

CHICAGO  FROM  1803  TO  1812 3 

THE   WILD   ONION   PLANT 12 

BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  OLD  FORT  DEARBORN     .      .  27 

RESIDENCE  OF  JOHN  KINZIE 32 

MR.  AND  MRS.  JOHN  H.  KINZIE 47 

REBEKAH  WELLS  HEALD 58 

CAPTAIN    WILLIAM    WELLS 5s 

HARDSCRABBLE 74 

FACSIMILE   OF   LETTER  OF   GENERAL   HULL   TO 

CAPTAIN    HEALD        103 

MEMORIAL  MONUMENT  TO  THE  MASSACRE     .      .  136 

FRANQUELIN'S  MAP  OF  1684 165 

MAP  OF  CHICAGO  IN  1812 165 


I 

Wilderness  Days 


THE  STORY  OF 
OLD  FORTjlttfeARBORN 


II H 

1111 


/Iff8  !)AYS 

A    T  the  time  tfcr|||^|   :|arborrs  wm  h& 
•*^-  the  site  of  §hlbi|c*hji  been  its*** 
the  civilized  worjd  l<f;|J  iu|idff<i 
years.     The  Chi<lg<jMiger  Ih          <*>  rutind- 

ing  region  had  fceS^lr    |      >  i)v  two  ex- 

p^    ^  g  ~t| 

piorers,  Joliet  aBd^?||.|   |        who  with   z 
party  of  five  mer  |    ||  gAncfes  were  \ 


r  O  -i-    i' 

from  a  voyage     g    «  s"|;^-  $  <s 
were  the  first  wh?t<  *s  « I  s  5 

<rs  ®  ^S  §J-Si>  ** 

Joiiet  was  tiu  ic&|^|;]f*c  party,  and  fee 

was  uccompanied.l^llil  the  custom  in 
French  cxpeditu-:..i§|^|'? .  | -.  --^n  countries, 
by  a  missionary,  w^lrfil  .**•  *#.&  {.««%«« 
Marquette,  a.  Jcsui^lJ^  |Boch  wr 
men,  Joliet  twenty- 3ij|fC'  ears  of  ^e  *>*4 
Marquette  thirty-six.  !>k  expeditic^i  li*^ 


if 


i  ... 


THE  STORY  OF 
OLD  FORT  DEARBORN 


i 

WILDERNESS  DAYS 

AT  the  time  that  Fort  Dearborn  was  built 
the  site  of  Chicago  had  been  known  to 
the  civilized  world  for  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years.  The  Chicago  River  and  the  surround 
ing  region  had  been  discovered  by  two  ex 
plorers,  Joliet  and  Marquette,  who  with  a 
party  of  five  men  in  two  canoes  were  returning 
from  a  voyage  on  the  Mississippi,  which  they 
were  the  first  white  men  to  navigate. 

Joliet  was  the  leader  of  the  party,  and  he 
was  accompanied,  as  was  the  custom  in 
French  expeditions  into  unknown  countries, 
by  a  missionary,  who  in  this  case  was  James 
Marquette,  a  Jesuit  priest.  Both  were  young 
men,  Joliet  twenty-eight  years  of  age  and 
Marquette  thirty-six.  The  expedition  had 

[3] 


THE    STORY    OF 

been  authorized  by  the  French  Government, 
the  purpose  being  to  penetrate  the  western 
wilderness  in  an  endeavor  to  reach  the  "  Great 
River,"  of  which  so  much  had  been  heard 
from  wandering  tribes  of  Indians,  and  to  find 
the  direction  of  its  flow.  Many  conjectures 
were  made  by  the  men  of  that  time  as  to  the 
course  of  this  river  and  where  it  reached  the 
sea,  some  believing  that  it  emptied  into  the 
"  Sea  of  Virginia,"  others  that  it  flowed  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  still  others  that  it 
discharged  its  waters  into  the  "  Vermilion 
Sea,"  that  is,  the  Gulf  of  California;  and  if 
the  latter  conjecture  should  prove  to  be  cor 
rect  a  passage  might  thus  be  opened  to  China 
and  India. 

In  the  event  of  such  a  discovery  being 
made,  great  honor  would  naturally  accrue  to 
its  projectors.  The  instructions  to  under 
take  such  an  expedition  came  from  Colbert, 
the  minister  of  Louis  XIV,  who  wrote  in  1672 
to  Talon,  the  Intendant  at  Quebec,  that  an 
effort  should  be  made  "to  reach  the  sea"; 
that  is,  to  discover  and  explore  the  "Great 
River"  and  solve  the  mystery  of  its  outlet. 

[4] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

Father  Dablon,  in  the  Jesuit  Relations,  thus 
wrote  of  the  enterprise  about  to  be  under 
taken:  "The  Count  Frontenac,  our  Gover 
nor,  and  Monsieur  Talon,  then  our  Intendant, 
recognizing  the  importance  of  this  discovery, 
.  .  .  appointed  for  this  undertaking  Sieur 
Joliet,  whom  they  considered  very  fit  for  so 
great  an  enterprise;  and  they  were  well 
pleased  that  Father  Marquette  should  be  of 
the  party." 

The  expedition  was  accordingly  organized, 
and  started  from  the  Mission  of  St.  Ignace  on 
the  iyth  of  May,  1673.  In  due  course  the 
party  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  River 
(of  Wisconsin),  at  the  head  of  Green  Bay. 
From  this  point  the  party  passed  up  the  Fox 
and  soon  after  crossed  the  portage  into  the 
Wisconsin  River.  They  were  now  far  beyond 
the  farthest  point  reached  by  any  previous 
explorers.  On  the  iyth  of  June  the  explorers 
paddled  their  canoes  out  on  to  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  Mississippi.  Marquette  wrote 
in  his  journal  that  when  he  beheld  the  great 
river  it  was  "  with  a  joy  that  I  cannot  express." 

It  was  while  carrying  out  the  purposes  of 
[5] 


THE    STORY    OF 

this  expedition  that  the  explorers  passed 
through  the  Chicago  River  from  the  west. 
They  had  reached  the  Mississippi  as  they  had 
planned  to  do,  had  floated  down  its  current  as 
far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  and  on  the 
way  back  had  ascended  the  Illinois  and  Des- 
plaines  rivers,  made  a  portage  into  the 
Chicago  River,  and,  passing  out  on  Lake 
Michigan,  pursued  their  journey  to  the  point 
on  Green  Bay  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  River 
from  which  they  had  started  at  the  beginning 
of  June,  after  an  absence  on  the  journey  of 
almost  four  months. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  De  Soto,  a 
Spanish  explorer,  had  discovered  the  Missis 
sippi  at  a  point  not  far  from  the  present  city 
of  Memphis,  in  the  year  1541,  a  hundred  and 
thirty-two  years  before  the  voyage  of  Joliet 
and  Marquette;  but  the  knowledge  of  that 
discovery  had  faded  from  men's  minds.  They 
actually  passed  over  the  spot  where  De  Soto 
had  crossed  the  river  in  the  previous  century, 
though  apparently  they  were  not  aware  of 
that  fact,  for  no  mention  is  made  in  Mar- 
quette's  journal  of  De  Soto  or  his  discovery. 

[6] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

The  chief  significance  of  the  Chicago  port 
age  to  the  explorers  when  they  passed  it  was 
the  view  of  the  lake  which  they  had  as  they 
descended  the  stream  towards  its  mouth.  Lake 
Michigan,  indeed,  had  been  discovered  long 
before,  but  it  was  known  only  along  its  north 
ern  shores  extending  as  far  as  Green  Bay, 
which  had  been  entered  by  the  missionaries,  a 
station  being  established  at  its  farthest  ex 
tremity.  The  southern  extension  of  Lake 
Michigan  was  unknown  until  Joliet  and  Mar- 
quette  paddled  into  it  with  their  canoes  as 
they  left  the  Chicago  River. 

No  date  was  mentioned  by  Marquette  in 
his  journal  of  the  arrival  of  the  party  in  the 
river,  but  it  must  have  been  about  the  begin 
ning  of  September,  1673.  Joliet  also  kept  a 
journal,  but  unfortunately  he  lost  all  his 
papers  in  a  canoe  accident  before  he  reached 
Quebec  on  his  return.  That  the  site  of  the 
future  Chicago,  situated  as  it  was  on  so  im 
portant  a  portage  connecting  the  lake  with 
the  river  systems  of  the  interior,  possessed 
advantages  of  a  striking  kind  was  plainly  per 
ceived  by  Joliet,  who  afterward  wrote  that 

[7] 


THE    STORY    OF 

an  artificial  waterway  could  easily  be  con 
structed  by  cutting  only  a  half  league  of 
prairie,  "  to  pass  from  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois 
into  St.  Louis  River." 

Thus,  upon  reaching  the  mission  station  of 
St.  Francis  Xavier,  situated  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Fox  River,  from  which  they  had 
started,  the  explorers  had  completed  a  journey 
of  about  twenty-five  hundred  miles  in  a  period 
of  four  months,  had  opened  to  the  eyes  of  the 
world  the  wonderful  river  of  the  West,  had 
incidentally  discovered  the  site  of  the  future 
great  city  of  Chicago,  and  had  made  the  com 
plete  circuit  back  to  Green  Bay  without  the 
loss  of  a  man  or  the  occurrence  of  a  single 
untoward  accident. 

La  Salle's  first  appearance  on  Lake  Michi 
gan  was  in  September,  1679,  s^x  years  after 
Joliet's  expedition.  La  Salle  came  down 
through  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  with  a  party 
of  seventeen,  skirted  the  western  shore  of  the 
lake  toward  the  south,  but  believing  he  could 
reach  the  Illinois  River  by  a  more  favorable 
route  than  that  over  which  Joliet  had  passed, 
he  coasted  around  the  southern  end  of  the  lake 

[8] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

until  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph 
River.  Ascending  that  river  he  found  the 
portage  into  the  Kankakee  and  readily  made 
his  way  to  the  Illinois,  where  he  established 
a  fort  near  Peoria.  He  returned  to  Canada 
the  following  year,  and  recruiting  another 
party  he  once  more  passed  over  the  St.  Joseph- 
Kankakee  route  to  the  same  destination  as 
before. 

Again  returning  to  Canada  he  started  near 
the  end  of  the  year  1681  with  a  much  larger 
party,  and  this  time  he  chose  the  Chicago- 
Desplaines  route  to  the  interior.  He  contin 
ued  on  down  the  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  thence 
down  the  Mississippi,  passed  the  farthest 
point  reached  by  Joliet,  and  at  length  arrived 
at  its  mouth  and  issued  forth  upon  the  waters 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  event  took  place 
on  the  yth  of  April,  1682. 

La  Salle  was  thus  the  first  white  man  to 
pass  down  the  Mississippi  River  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Illinois  to  the  Gulf.  De  Soto's 
followers  after  his  death  had  indeed  returned 
from  their  ill-starred  expedition  by  way  of 
the  lower  Mississippi,  but  it  remained  for 

[9] 


THE    STORY     OF 

La  Salle  to  arrive  at  a  certain  knowledge  of 
the  course  taken  by  the  river  throughout  the 
long  distance  over  which  he  passed  and  to 
determine  its  flow  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  moreover  to  establish  the  first  substantial 
claim  in  behalf  of  a  European  power  to  the 
soil  of  Louisiana. 

La  Salle  had  entered  upon  an  extensive 
system  of  colonization,  and  through  many 
dangers  and  difficulties  he  had  secured  foot 
holds  for  the  French  in  the  western  country. 
He  passed  frequently  back  and  forth  between 
the  forts  he  had  established  and  his  base  of 
supplies  at  Montreal.  In  the  summer  of  1683 
he  was  in  Chicago  and  wrote  a  letter  to  his 
lieutenant,  Tonty,  whom  he  had  left  in  com 
mand  of  Fort  St.  Louis,  on  the  Illinois  River, 
dating  the  letter  "  Portage  du  Chicagou,  4 
Juin,  1683."  During  the  next  three  years  he 
spent  the  larger  part  of  his  time  in  attempting 
to  found  a  colony  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  while  in  the  midst  of  his  activi 
ties  he  was  foully  assassinated  by  some  of  his 
followers.  His  death  occurred  on  March  19, 
1687. 

[10] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

Parkman  sums  up  the  character  of  La  Salle 
in  this  fine  passage:  "Serious  in  all  things, 
incapable  of  the  lighter  pleasures,  incapable 
of  repose,  finding  no  joy  but  in  pursuit  of 
great  designs,  too  shy  for  society  and  too  re 
served  for  popularity,  often  unsympathetic 
and  always  seeming  so,  smothering  emotions 
he  could  not  utter,  schooled  to  universal  dis 
trust,  stern  to  his  followers  and  pitiless  to  him 
self,  bearing  the  brunt  of  every  hardship  and 
every  danger,  demanding  of  others  an  equal 
constancy  joined  to  an  implicit  deference, 
heeding  no  counsel  but  his  own,  attempting 
the  impossible  and  grasping  at  what  was  too 
vast  to  hold,  —  he  contained  in  his  own  com 
plex  and  painful  nature  the  chief  springs  of 
his  triumphs,  his  failures,  and  his  death." 

The  Chicago-Desplaines  portage  was  used 
to  a  constantly  increasing  degree  in  the  fol 
lowing  years.  Missionaries,  traders,  and  mili 
tary  people  found  it  a  convenient  point  for 
residence  or  as  a  thoroughfare  to  the  Illinois 
River.  But  on  account  of  divided  counsels 
among  the  French  authorities  at  Quebec  there 
were  no  adequate  measures  taken  to  protect 


THE    STORY    OF 

the  whites  from  the  encroachments  and 
hostility  of  the  savages,  so  that  early  in  the 
next  century  the  portage  declined  in  impor 
tance  and  fell  into  disuse,  other  routes  to  the 
interior  being  preferred. 

The  name  "Chicago,"  in  some  of  the  nu 
merous  forms  of  spelling  employed,  is  met 
with  on  the  maps  of  successively  later  dates, 
occasionally  in  the  reports  of  French  com 
mandants  at  Detroit  or  Mackinac,  and  more 
frequently  in  the  letters  of  the  missionaries 
preserved  in  that  extensive  collection  known 
as  the  Jesuit  Relations.  After  the  victory  of 
Wolfe  over  Montcalm  and  the  fall  of  Que 
bec,  the  French  ceded  in  1763  all  their  western 
possessions  to  the  English,  which  "  left  France 
without  a  foothold  on  the  American  main." 

But  so  far  as  the  portage  at  Chicago  was 
concerned  this  change  of  sovereignty  made 
little  difference.  What  with  the  constant 
strife  among  the  savage  tribes  whose  normal 
condition  was  that  of  warfare,  and  the  dan 
gers  to  the  whites  caused  by  the  neglect  of 
military  protection,  the  region  was  left  a  soli 
tude;  and  the  few  references  to  its  existence 

[12] 


THE    STORY    OF 

the  whijes  from  the  encroachments  and 
hostility  of  the  savages,  so  that  early  in  the 
next  century  the  portage  drdmed  in  impor 
tance  and  fell  into  dhuse,  othex  routes  to  the 
interior  being  preferred. 

The  name  "Chicago,"  in  some  oi  the  nu 
merous  forms  of  spelling  employed,  is  met 
with  on  the  maps  of  nicce>s'vely  later  dates. 

THR  WILD  ONION  PLANT/,, 

occasionally   m  the   report*    n  .trench  com- 

JLnat  the  name  *  Chicago"  was  Herived  from  an  Indian  word 

mmA'&ttifc  o$if>nr?&fi<5ii<  ^wntie^  t  (Mn&re 

craft  tells  us  that  the  word  was  Chi-lcaug-ong,  meaning   wild 

the  rhe  missionaries 

MacTcinac  in  1695,  men- 


adilTac,  the"French  'commandant  at 


M.  *j „  •*.*  *•+*  *f  i-  **  it-  ?  *  •    -  •     "v A  wv*  xy \  & »OI 

the  river  was  referred  to  as  "Chicagou,  or  Garlick  CreeK." 


. 

ro?7i  fje  wild  onion,  and  Colonel  Samuel  4.  Storrou- 


(Jhtcagdu,  or  in  English,  Wild  Onion  Ttwert 

fty  9S€^S«tHW  /tfeJ^l  W  '  •* 

iwFuriantly  on  the  prairies  near  Chicago. 

without  a  foothold  on  the  American  main." 
But  so  far  as  the  portage  at  Chicago  was 
concerned  this  change  of  sovereignty  made 
little  difference,  What  with  the  constant 
strife  among  the  savage  tribes  whose  normal 
condition  was  that  of  warfare,  and  the  dan 
gers  to  the  whites  caused  by  the  neglect  of 
military  protection,  the  region  was  left  a  soli 
tude;  and  the  few  references  to  its  existence 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

during  a  hundred  years  indicate  confused 
relations  between  the  tribes  and  the  few 
whites  who  ventured  to  visit  the  region.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  western  country  again 
changed  in  1783,  this  time  from  the  British 
to  the  American  Government.  A  few  cabins 
were  built  in  the  vicinity  in  later  years, 
and  when  the  American  Government  pro 
ceeded  to  the  erection  of  a  fort  in  1803  these 
cabins  constituted  the  only  evidences  of  civil 
ization  that  existed  on  the  spot, 


[13] 


II 

Fortifying  the  Frontier 


II 

FORTIFYING  THE  FRONTIER 

IN  the  early  summer  of  1803,  the  schooner 
"  Tracy,"  a  transport  vessel  belonging  to 
the  United  States  Government,  left  Detroit 
with  a  cargo  of  building  material  and  sup 
plies,  and  in  due  time  arrived  off  the  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  River.  The  purpose  was  to 
build  a  fort  at  this  point.  About  the  same 
time  a  company  of  sixty-six  men  and  three 
commissioned  officers  took  their  departure 
from  Detroit  to  take  part  in  building  the 
fort  and  to  occupy  it  after  its  completion. 
Because  of  the  diminutive  size  of  the  schooner 
the  men  composing  this  force  did  not  sail  in 
her,  except  the  commanding  officer,  Captain 
John  Whistler,  accompanied  by  several  mem 
bers  of  his  family.  The  soldiers  marched 
overland,  conducted  by  Lieutenant  James  S. 
Swearingen,  and  reached  Chicago  about  the 


THE    STORY    OF 

same  time  that  the  vessel  arrived.  On  its  way, 
the  vessel  stopped  at  St.  Joseph,  Michigan, 
where  Captain  Whistler  and  his  family  dis 
embarked;  they  continued  their  journey  to 
Chicago  in  a  rowboat.  The  family  of  Captain 
Whistler  consisted  of  himself  and  his  wife, 
their  son,  Lieutenant  William  Whistler,  and 
his  wife,  recently  married,  and  a  younger  son, 
George  Washington  Whistler,  who  was  about 
two  years  old. 

General  Henry  Dearborn  was  at  that  time 
Secretary  of  War  in  the  cabinet  of  President 
Jefferson.  His  orders  to  the  commanding 
officer  at  Detroit  were  to  send  a  body  of  men 
to  construct  and  garrison  a  fort  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  River.  This  locality  had  long 
been  considered  a  suitable  one  for  the  con 
struction  of  a  frontier  military  post.  A  tract 
"  six  miles  square,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chikago 
River,"  had  been  ceded  by  the  Indians  to  the 
United  States  at  the  Treaty  of  Greenville  in 
1795,  evidently  with  a  view  to  its  favorable 
location  as  the  site  of  a  fort. 

William  Burnett,  a  trader  at  St.  Joseph, 
writing  to  a  firm  in  Montreal  under  date  of 
[18] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

August,  1798,  said  that  it  was  understood  that 
a  garrison  would  be  sent  to  Chicago  in  that 
year.  This  expectation,  however,  was  not 
realized  until  five  years  later. 

The  Treaty  of  Greenville  referred  to  was 
concluded  by  General  Anthony  Wayne  with 
the  tribes  in  1795,  after  they  had  been  disas 
trously  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Fallen  Tim 
bers  in  the  previous  year.  A  part  of  the 
description  of  the  tract  ceded  was  that  it  was 
"  where  a  fort  formerly  stood."  There  was 
no  trace  of  such  a  fort,  however,  when  the 
builders  of  Fort  Dearborn  arrived  upon  the 
scene.  The  Miami  Indian  chief,  Little 
Turtle,  well  known  to  the  whites  at  that 
period  and  a  man  familiar  with  this  region, 
said  in  later  years  when  questioned  about  it 
that  he  remembered  nothing  of  any  fort  that 
had  ever  stood  on  the  spot  before  the  building 
of  Fort  Dearborn. 

There  is  evidence,  however,  that  a  fort, 
perhaps  several  of  them  at  different  periods, 
had  been  erected  in  this  vicinity  and  occupied 
by  the  French;  but  having  been  built  in  a 
temporary  fashion  they  utterly  disappeared 
[19] 


THE    STORY    OF 

after  the  French  had  ceased  to  occupy  the 
country. 

The  tract  "six  miles  square"  mentioned  in 
the  Treaty  of  Greenville  was  never  surveyed, 
and  as  the  treaties  of  later  years  included  the 
locality  within  other  descriptions  of  ceded 
lands,  it  did  not  become  necessary  to  make  a 
survey.  For  that  reason  the  exact  boundaries 
of  the  six-mile-square  tract  were  never  deter 
mined  and  are  not  shown  on  official  maps 
now  recognized  in  title  abstracts,  though  on 
some  maps  an  outline  of  the  tract  is  shown  as 
an  illustration,  but  without  any  authority  as 
to  the  precise  position  occupied. 

It  has  been  stated  that  commissioners  from 
Washington  had  selected  as  the  site  of  a  pro 
posed  fort  on  Lake  Michigan  a  location  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  River  where  the  city 
of  St.  Joseph  now  stands,  but  as  the  Indian 
tribes  would  not  give  their  consent  for  its  con 
struction  at  that  point,  the  commissioners  had 
been  obliged  to  decide  on  a  site  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  River.  In  commenting  on  this 
statement  a  writer  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer 
Collection  of  Historical  Publications  says: 
[20] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

"  We  conclude  that  had  the  fort  been  built  at 
St.  Joseph  there  would  have  been  no  Chi 
cago."  Mr.  Edward  G.  Mason,  a  writer  of 
acknowledged  authority  on  subjects  pertaining 
to  western  history,  refers  to  this  statement,  and 
rather  humorously  observes :  "  This  matter  of 
a  fort  seems  to  have  been  peculiarly  disastrous 
to  the  St.  Joseph  country.  When  it  had  one  it 
constantly  invited  capture,  and  caused  the  in 
habitants  to  spend  more  or  less  of  their  lives 
as  prisoners  of  war,  and  when  it  did  not  have 
one  it  thereby  lost  the  opportunity  of  becom 
ing  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  North 
west.  I  know  of  no  such  tract  of  land  in  all 
this  section  which  has  been  so  singularly  un 
fortunate  as  the  St.  Joseph  region." 

Mr.  Mason  alludes  in  this  passage  to  the 
vicissitudes  suffered  by  the  small  military  post 
or  "tomahawk  fortress,"  as  such  posts  on  the 
frontier  were  sometimes  called,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Joseph  River,  which  during  the 
troublous  period  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
frequently  changed  masters.  At  the  time  of 
which  we  are  writing,  the  fort,  or  the  remains 
of  a  fort,  at  that  point  was  in  such  a  condition 
[21] 


THE    STORY    OF 

that  a  new  structure  would  have  been  neces 
sary  if  that  site  had  been  determined  upon  by 
the  authorities. 

Building  operations  for  Fort  Dearborn  be 
gan  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  under  the  direction 
of  Captain  Whistler.  The  soldiers  cut  the  tim 
ber  required  from  the  neighboring  forests 
and,  as  there  were  no  horses  or  oxen  available 
in  the  vicinity,  the  men  dragged  the  logs  with 
ropes  from  the  woods  to  the  banks  of  the 
river,  and  floated  them  to  the  site  chosen.  At 
that  period  a  forest  of  considerable  density 
covered  the  land  on  the  north  side  of  the  river, 
and  there  was  also  a  fringe  of  trees  along  the 
South  Branch  throughout  its  entire  length; 
but  the  extensive  area  in  the  South  Division, 
excepting  the  woodland  on  the  margin  of  the 
river,  was  open  prairie.  In  fact,  the  Grand 
Prairie  of  Illinois,  extending  for  hundreds  of 
miles  into  the  interior  of  the  state,  here 
reached  the  shore  of  the  lake  for  a  space  of 
three  or  four  miles  along  the  water,  and  it  is  a 
singular  fact  that  at  no  other  place  does  the 
Grand  Prairie  border  on  .Lake  Michigan.  It 
was  on  the  line  of  this  famous  tract  that  the 
[22] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

massacre  occurred,  which  will  be  described  in 
the  following  pages. 

The  portion  of  the  Grand  Prairie  between 
the  mouth  of  the  river  and  a  point  some  three 
or  four  miles  south  along  the  lake  shore  was 
mostly  devoid  of  trees,  a  scanty  growth  of  cot- 
tonwoods  and  pines,  however,  maintaining  a 
precarious  existence  among  the  sand-dunes. 
A  mile  or  two  south  of  the  river's  mouth  these 
low  sand-hills  became  the  predominant  fea 
ture  of  the  landscape,  just  as  may  be  found  at 
the  present  time  along  the  low  shores  of  the 
lake  beyond  the  city  limits  toward  the  south 
and  east.  Behind  the  sand-hills  the  level 
prairie  stretched  away  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach.  Schoolcraft,  in  one  of  his  early  voy 
ages,  related  that  as  one  approached  the  shores 
from  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  the 
appearance  of  these  sand-dunes  —  between 
which  was  occasionally  seen  a  scanty  growth 
of  stunted  pines  —  gave  a  desolate  aspect  to 
the  scene,  in  wonderful  contrast  with  the  rich 
and  abundant  verdure  of  the  far-reaching 
prairie  land  lying  just  beyond  them. 

When  the  schooner  "Tracy"  arrived  at 
[23] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Chicago  she  anchored  half  a  mile  from  shore 
and  discharged  her  cargo  by  boats;  for  a  long 
sand-bar,  with  its  surface  slightly  higher  than 
the  lake  level,  forced  the  current  of  the  river 
to  follow  the  shore  toward  the  south  before 
finding  an  outlet  into  the  lake,  and  even  then 
over  a  broad  stretch  of  shallow  water,  thus 
preventing  the  entrance  of  the  vessel  into  the 
river  channel.  u  Some  two  thousand  Indians," 
said  an  eyewitness  in  an  interview  reported 
many  years  later,  "visited  the  locality  while 
the  vessel  was  here,  being  attracted  by  so  un 
usual  an  occurrence  as  the  appearance  in  these 
waters  of  '  a  big  canoe  with  wings.' ' 

But  notwithstanding  the  astonishment  of  the 
Indians,  it  was  probably  not  the  first  time  that 
sailing  vessels  had  visited  the  shores  of  the 
future  site  of  Chicago.  William  Burnett, 
the  trader  at  St.  Joseph  before  referred  to,  in 
writing  to  a  merchant  in  Mackinac  in  1786, 
makes  a  request  that  a  vessel  be  sent  to  St. 
Joseph  to  take  on  board  a  quantity  of  grain, 
and  further  says  regarding  the  expected  vessel, 
"  If  she  is  to  come  to  Chicago  you  can  very 
likely  get  her  to  stop  at  the  mouth  of  the 
[24] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

river"  —  that  is,  the  St.  Joseph  River.  It  is 
probable  enough,  however,  that  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  Indians  around  Chicago,  who 
gazed  with  so  much  interest  at  the  sight  of 
the  wonderful  "  canoe  with  wings,"  had  never 
before  seen  a  craft  with  sails  spread  to  the 
breeze. 

The  "Tracy"  was  a  vessel  of  ninety  tons' 
burden,  and  belonged  to  the  United  States 
Government.  After  the  goods  were  unloaded 
they  were  placed  in  tents  to  await  the  comple 
tion  of  the  buildings.  At  the  end  of  five  days 
the  vessel  departed  on  her  return  voyage  to 
Detroit,  and  on  board  of  her  Lieutenant 
Swearingen  took  passage. 

Later  in  the  summer  the  fort  was  ready  for 
occupancy,  and  its  garrison  of  United  States 
regulars  took  possession  of  the  barracks  and 
dwellings  within  the  stockade.  The  fort  was 
named  in  honor  of  General  Henry  Dearborn, 
who  had  been  a  distinguished  officer  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  as  well  as  Secretary  of 
War  at  the  time  of  the  building  of  the  fort. 

The  fort  was  located  on  the  south  bank  of 
the  Chicago  River  near  the  present  Rush 
[25] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Street  bridge,  somewhat  north  of  the  spot 
marked  by  a  tablet  placed  in  recent  years 
upon  a  building  at  the  intersection  of  Michi 
gan  Avenue  and  River  Street.  The  river,  as 
is  well  known,  is  deflected  from  its  general 
east  and  west  direction  at  a  point  just  east  of 
the  present  State  Street  bridge.  Owing,  how 
ever,  to  the  construction  of  the  drainage  canal 
a  few  years  ago,  the  river  now  flows  from  the 
lake  so  that  when  it  reaches  the  point  men 
tioned,  its  course,  instead  of  northeast  forty 
rods,  as  formerly,  is  now  southwest. 

But  at  the  time  the  fort  was  built  the  bend 
in  the  river  reached  much  farther  toward  the 
north.  In  later  years  the  south  bank  was  par 
tially  dredged  away,  and  the  bend  was  there 
fore  considerably  lessened.  Thus  the  site  of 
the  fort,  being  close  to  the  river  bank,  was 
some  distance  farther  north  than  the  building 
upon  which  the  tablet  is  placed;  in  fact,  the 
northern  portion  of  the  fort  extended  over 
ground  now  covered  by  the  bed  of  the  river. 

It  may  be  well  to  remark  here  that  in  the 
year  1833  a  channel  was  dredged  through  the 
bar  directly  in  line  with  the  river's  course. 
[26] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

The  old  channel  beween  the  sand-bar  and 
the  shore  gradually  became  filled  up  in  the 
course  of  years,  and  at  the  present  day  it  is 
wholly  covered  by  a  mass  of  earth,  and  forms 
a  part  of  the  area^encjjosed  in  Grant  Park. 

In  the  construcfoJ  of  *.he  fort  there  were 
two  blockhouses  ejected,  one  at  the  southeast 
and  the  other  gt  t^e  |iorthwest  corner  of  the 
stockaded  enclt§u|e.  HThese  blockhouses  pro 
jected  partiall}gb$yo|d  tfeline  of  pickets  so 
that  their  defegd&s.  feould  Command  the  ap 
proaches  fromStlill^en  ^paces  without  the 
fort.  On  the  n§rt||sk^e  c||the  fort  there  was 
a  sally-port  witfi  al^ti^in^aean  passage,  lead- 

&  r<.  *~     ^  S     2 

inp-  from  the  pa&Se^i^iind  within  to  the 

'  K    ^»  5  {2*  o      "u  "a      =o 

river  bank,  degg^SlS^aiitieaiis  of  escape  in 
case  of  emergetic^|<V^^i^|ining  a  supply 
of  water  if  nej|]efrf  52*|fi|i^well  was  sunk 
for  the  ordinarf  u«J«4t&i  Iarfij(on  within  the 

#H         <t>        4O  -S    e  t<  r5J    vs  ^  •«» 

fort  enclosureg  -|§l<f  §11^  |iai.n  line  of 
pickets  another  sfefifdi^i^^Ss  placed  at  a 
different  angle  cdhfftffli^S^Srd  the  block 
houses,  thus  providing  two  strong  palisades 
entirely  surrounding  the  fort. 

A  plan  for  the  construction  of  frontier  forts 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

The  old  channel  beween  the  sand-bar  and 
the  shore  gradually  became  filled  up  in  the 
course  of  years,  and  at  the  present  day  it  is 
wholly  covered  by  a  mass  of  earth,  and  forms 
a  part  of  the  area  enclosed  in  Grant  Park. 

In  the  construction  of  the  fort  there  were 
two  blockhouses  erected,  one  at  the  southeast 
and  the  other  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
stockaded  enclosure.  These  blockhouses  pro 
jected  partially  beyond  the  line  of  pickets  so 
that  their  defenders  could  command  the  ap 
proaches  from  the  open  spaces  without  the 
fort.  On  the  north  side  of  the  fort  there  was 
a  sally-port  with  a  subterranean  passage,  lead 
ing  from  the  parade  ground  within  to  the 
river  bank,  designed  as  a  means  of  escape  in 
case  of  emergency,  or  of  obtaining  a  supply 
of  water  if  needed,  though  a  well  was  sunk 
for  the  ordinary  uses  of  the  garrison  within  the 
fort  enclosure.  Beyond  the  main  line  of 
pickets  another  similar  line  was  placed  at  a 
different  angle  converging  toward  the  block 
houses,  thus  providing  two  strong  palisades 
entirely  surrounding  the  fort. 

A  plan  for  the  construction  of  frontier  forts 
[27] 


THE    STORY    OF 

was  prepared  by  the  War  Department  and 
this  plan  was  referred  to  in  a  letter  of  instruc 
tions  written  by  General  Dearborn  under  date 
of  June  28,  1804.  While  it  thus  appears  that 
the  letter  was  written  a  year  later  than  the 
building  of  Fort  Dearborn,  it  was  an  outline 
of  the  general  principles  by  which  the  de 
partment  had  been  governed  in  all  such  works. 

"  Being  of  the  opinion,"  wrote  General 
Dearborn,  "that  for  the  general  defense  of 
our  country  we  ought  not  to  rely  upon  forti 
fications,  but  on  men  and  steel,  and  that  works 
calculated  for  resisting  batteries  of  cannon  are 
necessary  only  for  our  principal  seaports,  I 
cannot  conceive  it  useful  or  expedient  to  con 
struct  expensive  works  for  our  interior  mili 
tary  posts,  especially  such  as  are  intended 
merely  to  hold  the  Indians  in  check." 

He  added  that  he  had  directed  stockade 
works  "  aided  by  blockhouses"  to  be  erected 
at  Vincennes,  "  Chikago"  and  at  other  places, 
"in  conformity  with  the  sketch  herewith  en 
closed."  The  details  of  the  plan  are  further 
described  in  the  letter  as  follows:  "The 
blockhouses  to  be  constructed  of  timber 
[28] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

slightly  hewed,"  and  the  magazines  to  be  of 
brick  "of  a  conic  figure,"  each  capable  of  re 
ceiving  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  barrels  of 
powder.  "The  blockhouses,"  he  continued, 
"  are  to  be  so  placed  as  to  scour  from  the  upper 
and  lower  stories  the  whole  of  the  lines." 

The  plan  thus  outlined  was  followed  in  the 
construction  of  Fort  Dearborn  as  well  as  of 
other  forts  generally  along  the  frontier. 

Three  pieces  of  light  artillery  composed 
the  armament  of  the  fort,  until  at  a  later  time 
another  gun  was  added,  and  in  a  magazine 
constructed  for  the  purpose  was  stored  the 
necessary  ammunition. 

Directly  west  of  the  fort,  fronting  toward 
the  river,  was  built  a  double  log  house,  be 
tween  the  two  parts  of  which  an  open  passage 
was  left,  though  the  roof  was  made  continu 
ous  over  both  portions  as  well  as  over  the 
open  passage.  Along  the  front  and  rear  a 
veranda  extended  the  full  length  of  the 
structure.  This  building  was  the  Agency 
House,  or  United  States  Factory,  used  for 
storing  goods  to  be  sold  to  the  Indians  under 
Government  regulations.  For  a  number  of 
[29] 


THE    STORY    OF 

years,  from  1796  to  1822,  the  United  States 
supplied  goods  to  the  Indian  tribes  at  many 
places  on  the  frontier  in  exchange  for  their 
furs.  In  these  exchanges  the  Government's 
policy  was  to  deal  with  the  Indians  on  an 
equitable  basis,  providing  them  protection 
against  the  rapacity  of  the  traders,  many  of 
whom  swindled  them  unmercifully. 

It  may  be  said  in  passing  that  this  benevo 
lent  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
was  completely  frustrated.  The  traders  sup 
plied  their  savage  customers  with  liquor, 
which  the  Government  agents  were  not  at 
liberty  to  do,  and  thus  the  Indians  preferred 
to  do  business  with  the  former  in  spite  of  the 
lower  prices  and  superior  quality  of  the  goods 
furnished  by  the  latter.  In  1822,  the  "Fac 
tory  System,"  as  it  was  called,  was  discon 
tinued  entirely. 

For  many  years  previous  to  the  building 
of  Fort  Dearborn  a  substantial  dwelling  had 
been  standing  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river,  near  the  present  foot  of  Pine  Street. 
This  house  was  built  by  a  man  named  Jean 
Baptiste  Point  de  Saible,  a  native  of  San  Do- 

[30] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

mingo  and  a  negro,  some  time  before  1779, 
as  appears  from  a  report  made  by  Colonel  De 
Peyster,  the  commander  at  Michilimackinac 
during  the  British  occupation. 

De  Saible  was  an  Indian  trader.  One  of 
the  pioneers  who  remembered  him  said  of 
him  that  he  was  "  pretty  wealthy  and  drank 
freely,"  and  the  British  commander  above  re 
ferred  to  wrote  that  he  was  "much  in  the 
French  interest,"  which  gave  occasion  to  that 
officer  to  keep  a  close  watch  on  his  activities, 
situated  as  he  was  at  the  principal  portage 
between  the  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi.  De 
Saible  resided  in  this  house  for  over  eighteen 
years,  and  in  1797  so^  ^  an^  returned  to 
the  Peoria  Indians,  among  whom  he  had  pre 
viously  resided,  and  remained  with  them  the 
rest  of  his  life. 

The  purchaser  of  the  house  was  a  man 
named  Le  Mai,  a  French  trader.  Le  Mai 
made  some  improvements  and  occupied  the 
house  until  1804,  when  he  in  turn  sold  it  to 
John  Kinzie,  who  arrived  with  his  family  at 
Chicago  in  the  fall  of  that  year.  After  the 
house  came  into  the  possession  of  John  Kinzie 


THE    STORY    OF 

he  repaired  it,  added  a  veranda,  and  planted 
four  Lombardy  poplars  at  the  foot  of  the 
slope  on  which  the  house  stood.  The  house 
faced  toward  the  south,  having  the  river  di 
rectly  in  front  and  the  lake  a  short  distance 
to  the  east. 

This  house  became  known  as  the  "  Kinzie 
Mansion"  and  is  a  familiar  and  picturesque 
object  in  the  views  of  early  Chicago.  The 
house  escaped  the  general  destruction  at  the 
time  of  the  massacre  and  remained  the  resi 
dence  of  John  Kinzie  and  his  family  until 
the  time  of  his  death,  in  1828,  except  during 
the  four  years  of  his  enforced  absence,  from 
1812  to  1816.  The  house  was  finally  demol 
ished  in  the  early  thirties  after  more  than  a 
half-century's  existence. 

There  was  also  the  less  pretentious  cabin 
of  Antoine  Ouilmette,  situated  close  in  the 
rear  of  the  Kinzie  house.  Ouilmette  was  a 
Frenchman  with  an  Indian  wife,  and  had 
lived  here  since  1790.  His  wife,  being  a 
member  of  the  Potawatami  tribe,  was 
awarded,  at  one  of  the  Indian  treaties  many 
years  later,  a  tract  of  land  on  the  north  shore 
[32] 


THE    STORY    OF 

he  repaired  it,  ad|l|d  a  veranda,  and  planted 
four  Lombardy  g^fars  at  the  foot  of  the 
slope  on  which  tn*e«  frouse  stood.  The  house 
faced  toward  the  s|ffth,  having  the  river  di 
rectly  in  front  and^e  lake  a  short  distance 
to  the  east  f  | 

This  house  becaf|i|;  known  as  the  "  Kinzie 
Mansion"  and  is  a^f^miliar  and  picturesque 
object  in  the  vicw^lif  [early  Chicago.  The 

house  escaped  the  jh&neJal  destruction  at  the 

*  A   fcj 

time  of  the  tt!assa?:|^a!d  remained  the  resi 
dence  of  John  Knl^e^nd  his  family  until 
the  time  of  his  deai^  iq  1828,  except  during 
the  four  years  of  l&Je|jforced  absence,  from 
1812  to  1816.  Thcfj|pv$e  was  finally  demol 
ished  in  the  early  £ilr&s  after  more  than  a 
half-century's  exist$£ef 
There  was  also  Ji$e  less  pretentious  cabin 

K 

of  Antoine  Ouilmltfe,  situated  close  in  the 
rear  of  the  Kinzie^|ousc.  Ouilmette  was  a 

Frenchman  with   in^  Indian  wife,   and  had 

^  ^ 

lived  here  since  *|r|o.  His  wife,  being  a 
member  of  the  llMawatami  tribe,  was 
awarded,  at  one  oil|he  Indian  treaties  many 
years  later,  a  tract  §£land  on  the  north  shore 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

about  fourteen  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Chicago  River,  which  became  known  as  the 
uWilmette  Reservation,'7  and  is  now  the  site 
of  the  village  of  Wilmette. 

A  man  named  Pettell  also  had  a  small  cabin 
near  the  Kinzie  house.  Over  on  the  North 
Branch  another  trader  named  Guarie  had 
a  trading  house  which  had  been  there  from 
a  time  previous  to  the  year  1778.  Guarie's 
house  was  situated  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
river,  about  where  Fulton  Street  now  ends. 
The  North  Branch  was  called  by  the  Indian 
traders  and  voyageurs  of  those  days  the  "  River 
Guarie,"  and  the  South  Branch  "Portage 
River,"  the  name  Chicago  River  being  con 
fined  to  that  part  of  the  river  below  the  con 
fluence  of  those  two  streams. 

Captain  John  Whistler,  after  serving  seven 
years  as  commandant  at  Fort  Dearborn,  was 
ordered  to  another  post  early  in  the  summer 
of  1 8 10,  and  his  successor  was  Captain  Nathan 
Heald,  of  whom  we  shall  have  much  more 
to  say  in  the  following  pages.  In  bidding 
adieu  to  Captain  Whistler  it  is  proper  to  add 
a  few  particulars  concerning  him.  He  was 

[33] 


THE    STORY    OF 

a  native  of  Ireland,  and  had  come  to  America 
as  a  British  soldier  at  the  time  of  the  War  of 
the  Revolution.  He  was  in  Burgoyne's  army 
and  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Americans  when 
that  army  was  surrendered  after  the  battle  of 
Saratoga  in  1777. 

After  the  war  he  decided  to  remain  in 
America  and  took  up  his  residence  in  Mary 
land,  where  he  married,  and  where  his  son 
William  was  born.  Later  he  enlisted  in  the 
American  army,  taking  part  in  the  campaigns 
against  the  Indians  in  the  West.  His  loyalty 
to  his  new  allegiance  is  shown  in  the  naming 
of  his  youngest  son  after  the  "  Father  of  His 
Country." 

Captain  Whistler  served  in  the  army  of 
General  Arthur  St.  Clair  and  afterward  in 
that  of  General  Anthony  Wayne,  and  in  time 
was  promoted  to  be  a  captain  of  infantry. 
After  leaving  Fort  Dearborn  he  was  trans 
ferred  to  Fort  Wayne  and  the  rank  of  major 
was  bestowed  upon  him.  He  died  in  1827. 

John  Whistler  was  a  brave  and  efficient  sol 
dier  and  the  progenitor  of  a  distinguished  pos 
terity.  His  son  William  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
[34] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

a  lieutenant  in  his  father's  company,  and  long 
after  the  events  we  are  here  treating  of  was 
placed  in  command  of  Fort  Dearborn  (in 
the  year  1832),  and  his  daughter  became  the 
wife  of  Robert  A.  Kinzie,  one  of  the  sons  of 
John  Kinzie,  the  pioneer.  George  Washing 
ton  Whistler,  the  infant  son  of  Captain  John 
Whistler,  was  brought  to  Fort  Dearborn  in 
1803,  as  we  have  already  narrated,  and  after 
ward  was  graduated  at  West  Point.  Eventu 
ally  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  United 
States  army  and  entered  the  service  of  the 
Russian  Government  as  an  engineer,  where 
he  rendered  distinguished  services. 

The  eminent  painter,  James  A.  McNeill 
Whistler,  was  a  descendant  of  Captain  John 
Whistler.  In  the  life  of  Whistler,  the  artist, 
by  Joseph  and  Elizabeth  Pennell,  it  is  men 
tioned  that  Whistler  once  said  to  a  visitor 
from  Chicago  that  he  (Whistler)  ought  to 
visit  the  place  some  day,  "  for,"  said  he,  "you 
know,  my  grandfather  founded  the  city." 

John  Kinzie  has  been  called  "The  Father 
of  Chicago,"  and  also  "  Chicago's  Pioneer." 
He  was  born  at  Quebec  about  the  year  1763, 
[35] 


THE    STORY    OF 

and  he  was  therefore  about  forty  years  of  age 
when  he  arrived  in  Chicago,  in  1804.  His 
father  was  a  Scotchman  named  John  Mc- 
Kenzie,  but  instead  of  retaining  his  patro 
nymic  in  the  usual  manner,  John  of  Quebec 
changed  it  to  conform  to  a  usage  established 
by  his  boyish  companions  and  others,  who 
called  him  "  Little  Johnny  Kinzie." 

Young  John's  father  died  while  he  was  yet 
an  infant;  the  widow  married  William  For- 
syth,  and  soon  thereafter  the  family  moved  to 
New  York.  Here  he  was  placed  in  school,  but 
at  the  age  of  ten  he  ran  away  and  took  passage 
on  a  sloop  bound  for  Albany,  with  the  purpose 
of  finding  his  way  back  to  his  old  home  at 
Quebec.  By  good  fortune  he  found  a  friendly 
fellow  traveler  bound  for  the  same  destina 
tion,  who  assisted  him  on  the  way.  Arriving 
at  Quebec  he  found  employment  with  a  sil 
versmith  and  learned  the  trade.  He  remained 
with  the  silversmith  three  years,  at  the  ex 
piration  of  which  time  he  returned  to  his 
parents,  who  had  in  the  meantime  removed 
to  Detroit. 

John  Kinzie  had  an  active  and  enterprising 
[36] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

* 

disposition  which  led  him  as  he  grew  older 
to  live  much  upon  the  frontier.  He  entered 
the  Indian  trade  while  he  was  yet  very  young 
and  became  an  adept  in  his  intercourse  with 
the  Indians.  He  learned  their  language  and 
was  esteemed  by  them  as  a  reliable  and  fair- 
dealing  trader.  He  soon  began  trading  on  his 
own  account,  and  before  he  came  to  Chicago 
he  had  trading  establishments  at  Sandusky  and 
Maumee,  and  pushing  farther  west,  he  estab 
lished  a  post  at  St.  Joseph.  It  was  in  the 
pursuance  of  a  general  policy  of  business  ex 
pansion  that  he  bought  the  Le  Mai  house  at 
Chicago,  a  house  which  afterward  became 
historic.  Kinzie  himself  has  become  of  his 
toric  importance  to  a  degree  he  could  never 
have  dreamed  of,  and  which  would  not  have 
been  possible  but  for  the  fact  that  the  place 
he  chose  for  his  residence  has  since  become 
one  of  the  world's  great  cities. 

While  by  no  means  the  first  settler  at  Chi 
cago,  John  Kinzie  is  generally  accorded  the 
title  of  "Chicago's  Pioneer,"  although  it  is 
quite  probable  that  there  were  traders,  hunt 
ers,  and  trappers  residing  here  for  longer  or 

[37] 


THE    STORY    OF 

shorter  periods  even  earlier  than  De  Saible 
and  Le  Mai. 

"  I  doubt  if  any  known  person  can  safely 
be  called  the  *  earliest  settler'  of  Chicago," 
writes  Thwaites.  "  The  habitants  and  traders 
went  back  and  forth  like  Arabs.  No  doubt 
there  was  a  succession  of  temporary  visitors 
residing  any  time  from  a  few  months  to  sev 
eral  years  at  this  site  during  the  entire  French 
regime,  but  especially  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  concerning  which  period  the  records  are 
unfortunately  scanty." 

When  John  Kinzie  arrived  here  he  found 
Ouilmette,  Pettell,  Le  Mai,  and  Guarie,  all 
of  whom  were  permanent  residents.  Mr.  Kin 
zie  was  a  man  of  character  and  influence.  He 
had  been  well  educated  for  those  times,  and 
possessed  civic  virtues  in  an  eminent  degree. 
Through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  frontier  life 
he  maintained  and  brought  up  a  large  fam 
ily,  assisted  those  who  were  related  to  him  as 
step-children  and  half-brothers,  and  his  de 
scendants  became  honorable  members  of  the 
community  with  which  they  were  identified. 

Mr.   Kinzie  was  generally  known  as  the 
[38] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

"  Indians'  Friend,"  and  had  received  from 
them  the  name  of  Shaw-ne-aw-kee ;  that  is, 
Silver-man,  on  account  of  his  having  learned 
the  trade  of  a  silversmith,  which  he  practiced 
on  occasion. 

When  he  came  here  from  Detroit  Mr.  Kin- 
zie  was  accompanied  by  his  family,  consist 
ing  of  his  wife  and  son,  John  Harris  Kinzie, 
then  an  infant  one  year  old,  and  his  step 
daughter,  Margaret  McKillip.  Three  other 
children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kinzie 
during  the  next  few  years,  and  at  the  time  of 
the  massacre  these  children  as  well  as  their 
parents  escaped  harm  through  the  assistance 
of  several  friendly  Indian  chiefs. 

Excepting  the  four  years  following  the  mas 
sacre,  the  Kinzie  family  resided  here  until  the 
death  of  Mr.  Kinzie,  in  1828,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five  years.  His  widow  and  some  of  his 
children  continued  their  residence  in  Chicago 
until  long  after  the  middle  of  the  century. 

A  few  words  concerning  the  earlier  life  of 

the  remarkable  woman  who  was  the  wife  of 

John  Kinzie  will  be  appropriate  in  this  place. 

Previous  to  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Kinzie,  in 

[39]- 


THE    STORY    OF 

1800,  Mrs.  Kinzie  was  a  widow,  her  first  hus 
band  having  been  a  Captain  McKillip,  serv 
ing  in  the  British  army,  who  had  been  killed 
in  the  year  1794.  Her  daughter,  Margaret 
McKillip,  afterward  became  the  wife  of 
Lieutenant  Linai  T.  Helm,  one  of  the  officers 
at  Fort  Dearborn. 

Mrs.  Kinzie's  maiden  name  was  Eleanor 
Lytle,  and  when  a  child  she  lived  with  her 
parents  in  Western  Pennsylvania.  When  but 
nine  years  of  age  she  was  carried  off  by  In 
dians  and  adopted  as  a  sister  by  a  chief  of 
the  Seneca  tribe.  After  four  years  of  cap 
tivity  she  was  safely  restored  to  her  parents. 
Writing  of  her  experiences  at  this  time,  so 
similar  to  those  of  thousands  of  other  chil 
dren  captives,  the  author  of  Wau-Bun  (who 
it  will  be  remembered  was  a  daughter-in- 
law  of  Mrs.  John  Kinzie)  says:  "  Four  years 
had  now  elapsed  since  the  capture  of  little 
Nelly.  Her  heart  was  by  nature  warm  and 
affectionate,  so  that  the  unbounded  tenderness 
of  those  she  dwelt  among  had  called  forth  a 
corresponding  feeling  of  affection  in  her 
heart.  She  regarded  the  chief  and  his  mother 
[40] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

with  love  and  reverence,  and  had  so  com 
pletely  learned  their  language  and  customs  as 
almost  to  have  forgotten  her  own. 

"So  identified  had  she  become  with  the 
tribe  that  the  remembrance  of  her  home  and 
family  had  nearly  faded  from  her  memory; 
all  but  her  mother — her  mother  whom  she 
had  loved  with  a  strength  of  affection  natural 
to  her  warm  and  ardent  character,  and  to 
whom  her  heart  still  clung  with  a  fondness 
that  no  time  or  change  could  destroy." 

The  peace  of  1783  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  was  followed  by  a  gen 
eral  pacification  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  the 
chief  who  held  little  Nelly  captive  was  in 
vited  to  a  council  fire  at  Fort  Niagara  by 
Colonel  William  Johnson,  a  man  celebrated 
for  his  wonderful  popularity  and  influence 
with  the  Indians  of  New  York  State,  and  the 
chief  was  requested  to  bring  the  little  captive 
with  him.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  but 
not  before  a  promise  was  made  that  there 
should  be  no  effort  to  reclaim  the  child. 

The  parents  of  the  child  were  anxious  to 
behold  once  more  the  form  and  features  of 


THE    STORY    OF 

their  offspring,  and  came  to  Fort  Niagara  for 
the  purpose.  "The  time  at  length  arrived," 
runs  the  narrative,  "when,  her  heart  bound 
ing  with  joy,  little  Nelly  was  placed  on  horse 
back  to  accompany  her  Indian  brother  to  the 
great  council  of  the  Senecas.  She  had  prom 
ised  him  that  she  would  never  leave  him  with 
out  permission,  and  he  relied  confidently  on 
her  word. 

"  As  the  chiefs  and  warriors  arrived  in  suc 
cessive  bands  to  meet  their  '  father/  the  agent, 
at  the  council  fire,  how  did  the  anxious  hearts 
of  the  parents  beat  with  alternate  hope  and 
fear!  The  officers  of  the  fort  had  kindly 
given  them  quarters  for  the  time  being,  and 
the  ladies,  whose  sympathies  were  strongly 
excited,  had  accompanied  the  mother  to  the 
place  of  council,  and  joined  in  her  longing 
watch  for  the  first  appearance  of  the  band 
from  the  Alleghany  River. 

"At  length  they  were  discerned,  emerging 
from  the  forest  on  the  opposite  or  American 
side.  Boats  were  sent  across  by  the  command 
ing  officer  to  bring  the  chief  and  his  party. 
The  father  and  mother,  attended  by  all  the 
[42] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

officers  and  ladies,  stood  upon  the  grassy  bank 
awaiting  their  approach.  They  had  seen  at 
a  glance  that  the  little  captive  was  with  them." 

The  chief  held  the  little  maiden's  hand 
while  crossing  the  river,  and  when  the  boat 
touched  the  bank  he  saw  the  child  spring 
forward  into  the  arms  of  her  waiting  mother 
from  whom  she  had  been  so  long  separated. 
When  the  chief  witnessed  this  outburst  of 
affection  he  was  deeply  moved,  and  could  no 
longer  continue  steadfast  in  his  resolution  to 
retain  possession  of  the  child. 

"She  shall  go,"  said  he.  "The  mother 
must  have  her  child  again.  I  will  go  back 
alone." 

"With  one  silent  gesture  of  farewell,"  says 
the  writer,  "  he  turned  and  stepped  on  board 
the  boat.  No  arguments  or  entreaties  could 
induce  him  to  remain  at  the  council;  but 
having  gained  the  other  side  of  the  Niagara, 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  with  his  young 
men  was  soon  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  shelter 
ing  forest." 

Soon    afterward    the    parents    of   Eleanor 
Lytle  removed  to  Detroit  and  it  was  there 
[43] 


THE    STORY    OF 

when  but  fourteen  years  of  age  that  she  met 
and  married  Captain  McKillip. 

The  writer  of  the  narrative  from  which  the 
above  sketch  has  been  derived  was  Mrs.  Juli 
ette  A.  Kinzie,  the  wife  of  John  Harris  Kin- 
zie,  who  was  the  oldest  child  of  John  Kinzie 
and  Eleanor  (Lytle)  McKillip  Kinzie.  Mrs. 
John  H.  Kinzie  wrote  a  book,  already  men 
tioned,  called  Wau-Bun,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  1856,  in  which  are  a  number  of 
sketches  of  Chicago's  early  settlers,  and  an 
account  of  the  period  extending  over  the 
occupation  and  destruction  of  the  first  Fort 
Dearborn.  Her  book  is  the  earliest  and  most 
substantial  contribution  to  Chicago  history 
of  the  period  referred  to  that  we  possess. 

It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  state  that 
the  granddaughter  of  the  "little  Nelly"  of 
the  narrative,  who  was  so  wonderfully  restored 
to  her  own  people  after  all  those  years  of  cap 
tivity,  is  Mrs.  Nelly  Kinzie  Gordon,  now  re 
siding  in  Savannah,  Georgia.  Though  now 
nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  Mrs.  Gordon  is 
in  possession  of  all  her  faculties  to  a  remark 
able  degree,  and  seems  indeed  to  have  pre- 
[44] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

served  the  freshness  of  her  youth  in  body 
and  mind.  She  takes  a  sympathetic  and  in 
telligent  interest  in  all  the  historical  writings 
having  to  do  with  the  early  history  of  Chi 
cago,  where  she  was  born  and  where  she 
lived  many  years  of  her  life,  and  she  is 
always  ready  to  aid  inquirers  with  advice  and 
suggestions. 

The  interior  arrangements  of  the  Kinzie 
house  were  described  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Baird,  who  as  a  child  visited  the  Kinzies  at 
Chicago  in  company  with  her  mother.  The 
family  of  which  Mrs.  Baird  was  a  member 
lived  on  the  island  of  Mackinac  and  came 
to  Chicago  in  a  lake  vessel  loaded  with  a 
cargo  of  supplies. 

The  account  written  by  Mrs.  Baird  in  her 
old  age  is  printed  in  the  Wisconsin  Histori 
cal  Society's  collections.  She  remembers  dis 
tinctly  the  house  and  its  surroundings.  "  It 
was  a  large,  one-story  building,"  she  said, 
"with  an  exceptionally  high  attic.  The  front 
door  opened  into  a  wide  hall  that  led  through 
to  the  kitchen,  which  was  spacious  and  bright, 
made  so  by  the  large  fireplace.  Four  rooms 

[45] 


THE    STORY    OF 

opened  into  the  hall,  two  on  each  side,  and  the 
attic  contained  four  rooms."  There  was  room 
in  the  house  for  all  the  members  of  the  Kinzie 
family  besides  quite  a  number  of  servants  and 
helpers. 

The  only  way  of  crossing  the  river,  she 
says,  was  by  a  wooden  canoe  or  "dugout," 
which  was  used  even  by  the  children,  who 
became  very  skillful  in  navigating  the  deep 
and  slow-moving  stream  which  separated  the 
house  from  the  fort.  Besides  amusing  them 
selves  in  the  canoe,  often  called  a  pirogue, 
the  children  found  delight  in  running  among 
the  sand-hills  along  the  lake  shore  and  "tum 
bling  down  their  sides." 

Mrs.  Baird  was  the  daughter  of  a  half- 
breed  mother  whose  mother  was  a  member  of 
the  Ottawa  tribe  of  Indians.  "To  know  we 
had  Indian  blood  in  our  veins,"  she  writes, 
"was  in  one  respect  a  safeguard,  in  another 
a  great  risk.  Each  tribe  was  ever  at  enmity 
with  the  others.  No  one  could  foretell  what 
might  happen  when  by  chance  two  or  more 
tribes  should  meet  or  encamp  at  any  one  place 
at  the  same  time.  This,  however,  would  be 
[46] 


OLD    FtniT    DEARBORN 

of  rare  ot-curawe*.     Lniese  on  the  warpath 

Indians  keep  by  rhgmsehrs/ 

4^    i>* 
|e,  the 

Kinzie,  spent  the  |Air^  from  h**  wfj*£n 
the  age  of  nine  Ii-  .  |^    12     iris  pa  ?'*•»<:>.  «« 
Kinzie  mansion.     i&eij!0|were  DO 
the  vicinity,  and  yj^nj|  |ohn  had  to  *kf  c 
upon  chance  oppcroirtlt|es  of  obtaining  utt- 
rudiments  of  an  e*4:a|<.J?.     It  is  related 
among  the  supp|ie||on|i|n('d  to  John  Kinzi 
arriving  by  the§{  mtutf  schooner/1  there  was 
found  a  spell  i  M    |S    ,s."i      le  a  chest  of  tea 

-5  S       5*  ™ 

which  the  eldegK^v  -^«       ro  hw  * 

HH  QJ   PQ  "**      °° 

the  aid  of  hisSf^^r^^tep-hroirh 
Forsj^th,  then  ::§  ^-|    |^  '   VI  r  Kin 


ily,  young  Johg  IcirrtSrfhis  first  l 
later  years  he  ^i|the|cgdor  of  tea 
minded  him  o^'  t||e^sp|ying  btx^k 
study  in  his  boyh^ld^  I* 
The  children  oil  -«| 
as  those  of  the  .f^c«c% 
fort  who  had 


a  number  of  the|i|i2    .....  >  f  '•      '••  ' 

.  ^  tq     K  ^  » 

classes  ana  taugijQ'^JNs 

^  o  ^^&  w     J 

cation  ^^    .-        ice   naa   c 

"  ? 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

of  rare  occurrence.  Unless  on  the  warpath 
Indians  keep  by  themselves." 

John  Harris  Kinzie,  the  oldest  son  of  John 
Kinzie,  spent  the  years  from  his  infancy  to 
the  age  of  nine  living  with  his  parents  in  the 
Kinzie  mansion.  There  were  no  schools  in 
the  vicinity,  and  young  John  had  to  depend 
upon  chance  opportunities  of  obtaining  the 
rudiments  of  an  education.  It  is  related  that 
among  the  supplies  consigned  to  John  Kinzie, 
arriving  by  the  "  annual  schooner,"  there  was 
found  a  spelling  book  inside  a  chest  of  tea 
which  the  elder  Kinzie  gave  to  his  son.  With 
the  aid  of  his  father's  step-brother,  Robert 
Forsyth,  then  a  member  of  Mr.  Kinzie's  fam 
ily,  young  John  learned  his  first  lessons.  In 
later  years  he  said  the  odor  of  tea  always  re 
minded  him  of  the  spelling  book  he  used  to 
study  in  his  boyhood. 

The  children  of  the  Kinzie  family,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  at  the 
fort  who  had  their  families  with  them,  —  as 
a  number  of  them  did, — were  formed  into 
classes  and  taught  by  a  soldier  of  some  edu 
cation  whose  term  of  service  had  expired, 

[47] 


THE    STORY    OF 

but  on  account  of  his  irregular  habits  the 
school  was  discontinued  after  some  months. 

A  brief  sketch  of  General  Henry  Dearborn, 
already  referred  to  in  this  history,  should  be 
given  in  this  place.  The  name  of  Dearborn 
is  often  met  with  among  Chicago  localities 
and  institutions;  and  the  city  is  honored  in 
thus  perpetuating  the  name  and  memory  of  a 
man  who,  though  he  had  never  visited  this 
vicinity,  held  positions  of  responsibility  and 
honor  in  the  affairs  of  the  country. 

General  Dearborn  was  a  native  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  at  the  time  of  the  establish 
ment  of  Fort  Dearborn  was  a  man  somewhat 
past  fifty  years  of  age.  After  passing  through 
the  best  schools  of  the  State  in  which  he  was 
born  he  studied  medicine  and  practiced  that 
profession  for  some  years  before  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  At  an  early 
period  in  that  struggle  he  raised  a  company 
of  militia  and  joined  a  regiment  commanded 
by  Colonel  John  Stark,  who  afterward  became 
the  hero  of  the  battle  of  Bennington.  As  a 
captain  young  Dearborn  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  at  a  later  time 
[48] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

was  with  Arnold  on  his  unsuccessful  expedi 
tion  to  Canada,  where  he  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  British.  He  was  exchanged  and  again 
entered  the  service,  and  as  major  assisted  in 
the  capture  of  Burgoyne's  army  at  the  battle 
of  Saratoga. 

It  is  related  in  a  recent  history: 

During  this  campaign  he  kept  a  journal,  which  is 
now  preserved  in  the  Boston  Public  Library.  The 
entry  made  the  day  of  the  surrender  is  as  follows: 

"  This  day  the  great  Mr.  Burgoyne  with  his  whole 
army  surrendered  themselves  as  prisoners  of  war  with 
all  their  public  stores ;  and  after  grounding  their  arms 
marched  off  for  New  England  —  the  greatest  conquest 
ever  known." 

At  a  later  period  of  the  war  Dearborn  was 
promoted  to  be  lieutenant-colonel  and  was 
present  at  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis 
at  Yorktown  in  1781.  After  this  event  he 
wrote  in  his  journal :  "  Here  ends  my  mili 
tary  life."  He  was,  however,  afterwards  com 
missioned  a  major-general  of  militia  by  the 
State  of  Massachusetts,  of  which  State  he  was 
a  citizen.  He  became  a  member  of  Congress 
in  1801,  and  was  appointed  Secretary  of  War 
by  President  Jefferson.  He  remained  in  the 
[49] 


THE    STORY    OF 

cabinet  of  President  Jefferson  throughout  the 
eight  years  of  his  administration. 

In  the  War  of  1812  General  Dearborn  was 
appointed  senior  major-general  by  President 
Madison,  and  rendered  distinguished  services 
on  the  Niagara  frontier  during  that  war.  He 
died  in  Boston  at  the  advanced  age  of  seventy- 
nine  years. 

A  portrait  of  General  Dearborn  is  at  the 
present  time  in  the  possession  of  the  Calumet 
Club  of  Chicago,  painted  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 
John  Wentworth  once  said:  "One  of  the 
highest  compliments  paid  to  General  Dear 
born  is  the  fact  that  whilst  the  names  of  so 
many  of  our  streets  have  been  changed  to 
gratify  the  whims  of  our  aldermen,  no 
attempt  has  been  made  to  change  that  of 
Dearborn  Street.  Not  only  is  this  the  case 
but  the  name  Dearborn  continues  to  be  pre 
fixed  to  institutions,  enterprises,  and  objects 
which  it  is  the  desire  of  projectors  to  honor." 

There  was  an  interpreter  at  the  fort,  John 
Lalime  by  name,  who  was  at  enmity  with 
John  Kinzie,  the  Indian  trader.  One  after 
noon  early  in  the  year  1812,  Mr.  Kinzie  had 

[50] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

occasion  to  be  at  the  fort,  and  when  the  gates 
were  about  to  be  closed  for  the  aight  he  passed 
out  to  return  to  his  home  across  the  river. 
Just  after  his  departure  Lalime  also  passed 
out  at  the  gate,  and  knowing  the  state  of  feel 
ing  between  the  two  men,  Lieutenant  Helm, 
who  was  the  officer  on  duty,  called  out  to 
Mr.  Kinzie  to  beware  of  Lalime.  The  latter 
was  following  the  other  closely  and  his  actions 
were  threatening. 

Lieutenant  Helm  had  married  Mr.  Kin- 
zie's  step-daughter,  Margaret  McKillip,  some 
years  before,  and  the  relationship  thus  exist 
ing  doubtless  caused  a  feeling  of  natural 
anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  officer  for  Mr.  Kin- 
zie's  safety.  When  Mr.  Kinzie  heard  the 
warning  shout  he  turned  suddenly  upon  the 
man  following  him  and  at  the  same  time  saw 
that  he  was  armed  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand 
and  a  knife  in  his  belt.  Mr.  Kinzie  himself 
was  totally  unprovided  with  weapons,  but 
notwithstanding,  he  grappled  with  Lalime  at 
once.  In  the  course  of  the  struggle  which 
ensued  the  pistol  was  discharged,  though  with 
out  harm  to  either  antagonist.  Both  men 


THE    STORY    OF 

attempted  to  get  possession  of  the  knife  and 
both  were  wounded  by  it.  Mr.  Kinzie,  how 
ever,  succeeded  in  inflicting  a  fatal  thrust 
upon  his  adversary,  while  he  himself  was 
covered  with  blood  as  a  result  of  the  encoun 
ter.  Lalime  fell  dead  upon  the  ground. 

This  tragic  affair  was  witnessed  by  the 
people  at  the  fort,  and  by  a  half-breed  woman 
who  was  a  servant  in  the  Kinzie  family  from 
the  door  of  the  Kinzie  house.  As  Lalime  had 
many  friends  at  the  fort  who  at  first  thought 
that  Mr.  Kinzie  had  attacked  him  without 
provocation  there  was  a  movement  to  take 
Kinzie  into  custody;  and  fearing  that  a  squad 
would  be  sent  for  this  purpose,  he  concealed 
himself  in  the  woods  near  his  house,  and  soon 
after  embarked  in  a  boat  with  an  Indian  guide 
for  Milwaukee,  where  one  of  his  trading  posts 
was  located. 

An  inquiry  into  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
affair  was  made  by  the  officers  of  the  garri 
son,  and  a  verdict  of  justifiable  homicide 
was  reached.  Mr.  Kinzie,  hearing  of  this, 
returned  to  his  home  as  soon  as  he  had  suffi 
ciently  recovered  from  his  wound  to  do  so. 
[52] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

It  was  said  by  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard  in  later 
years  that  Mr.  Kinzie  deeply  regretted  the 
killing  of  Lalirhe,  and  further,  that  he  firmly 
believed  the  deed  was  committed  in  self- 
defence.  Lalime  was  an  educated  man  and 
was  a  favorite  with  the  military  people.  He 
was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  the  river, 
and  for  many  years  thereafter  the  grave 
was  enclosed  with  a  small  picket  fence, 
which  was  cared  for  by  Mr.  Kinzie  and  his 
family. 

When  Captain  Nathan  Heald  assumed 
command  at  Fort  Dearborn,  in  succession 
to  Captain  Whistler,  he  entered  upon  his 
duties  with  much  reluctance,  owing  to  the 
remoteness  of  the  post  and  the  loneliness  of 
its  situation.  He  was  a  much  younger  man 
than  his  predecessor,  being  at  the  time  thirty- 
five  years  of  age  and  unmarried,  and  found 
himself  associated  with  officers  still  younger 
than  he  was.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  at 
his  new  post  he  wrote  Colonel  Jacob  Kings- 
bury,  commandant  at  Detroit,  that  he  was 
not  pleased  with  his  situation  and  could  not 
bear  to  think  of  staying  there  during  the  win- 
[53] 


THE    STORY    OF 

ter.  "It  is  a  good  place,"  he  wrote,  "for  a 
man  who  has  a  family,  and  can  content  him 
self  to  live  remote  from  the  civilized  part  of 
the  world." 

Two  years  previous  to  this  time  Captain 
William  Wells  had  taken  his  niece,  Rebekah 
Wells,  daughter  of  his  brother,  Captain  Sam 
uel  Wells  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  to  Fort 
Wayne  on  a  visit,  and  while  there  she  met 
Captain  Heald,  who  was  on  duty  at  that  point 
In  the  summer  following  Heald's  arrival  at 
Fort  Dearborn  he  obtained  a  leave  of  absence 
for  the  purpose  of  going  to  Louisville  to 
be  married  to  Rebekah  Wells.  The  marriage 
followed  his  arrival  there  and  was  doubtless 
the  result  of  the  acquaintance  formed  at  the 
time  of  the  Fort  Wayne  visit,  the  first  of  many 
romantic  episodes. 

The  journey  of  the  newly  wedded  couple 
from  the  old  Kentucky  home  to  their  new 
place  of  residence  at  Fort  Dearborn  was  made 
in  May,  1811,  and  it  is  interesting  to  learn 
that  the  whole  distance  was  covered  in  six 
days.  There  were  three  in  the  party  —  the 
captain,  his  bride,  and  a  little  slave  girl  who 
[54] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

begged  to  be  taken  along.  Each  had  a  horse 
to  ride,  and  an  extra  horse  carried  the  bag 
gage;  they  traveled  by  compass. 

On  their  arrival  the  garrison  turned  out  to 
receive  them  with  military  honors.  Rebekah 
was  much  pleased  with  her  reception,  and 
found  everything  to  her  liking;  she  liked 
the  wild  place,  the  wild  lake,  and  the  wild 
Indians,  then  indeed  friendly  enough,  but  soon 
to  become  fierce  enemies.  Everything  suited 
her  ways  and  disposition,  "being  on  the  wild 
order"  herself,  she  said;  and  we  can  well 
imagine  Captain  Heald  becoming,  in  his 
changed  circumstances,  quite  reconciled  to 
the  situation  with  which  he  was  so  much 
displeased  the  year  before. 

Captain  Heald  was  a  martinet  in  the  matter 
of  military  discipline,  and  during  the  two 
years  or  more  that  elapsed  between  his  arrival 
and  the  evacuation  of  the  fort  he  became 
unpopular  by  reason  of  his  strict  insistence 
upon  every  detail  required  by  the  military 
regulations.  It  had  become  the  recognized 
practice  in  isolated  garrisons  at  lonely  posts 
to  relax  somewhat  the  discipline  usually  found 

[55] 


THE    STORY    OF 

necessary  where  large  numbers  of  troops  were 
assembled. 

But  while  Captain  Heald  was  so  exacting 
in  the  affairs  of  the  post,  he  applied  the  same 
principles  to  his  own  conduct  where  the  orders 
of  his  superior  officers  were  concerned,  even 
when  conditions  would  have  warranted  inde 
pendent  action. 

Heald  would  have  been  an  ideal  officer  on 
the  staff  of  a  general  where  it  was  necessary 
to  render  instant  and  implicit  obedience  to 
orders,  and  in  such  a  position  his  services 
would  have  been  without  doubt  faithful  and 
efficient.  But  when  serving  at  a  distant 
post,  where  much  latitude  in  complying  with 
instructions  might  have  been  permitted  and 
justified,  he  failed  to  use  the  discretion  that 
he  was  unquestionably  entitled  to  exercise 
under  such  circumstances.  Heald  was  not 
able  to  see  beyond  the  letter  of  his  instruc 
tions,  and  to  the  literal  manner  in  which  he 
construed  them  may  be  attributed  in  great 
measure  the  disasters  that  overtook  the  fort 
and  its  occupants. 

Captain  William  Wells,  the  hero  of  the 
[56] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

story  we  are  here  relating,  was  born  about 
1770,  in  Kentucky.  His  career  throughout  is 
surrounded  with  an  atmosphere  of  romance. 
When  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  writing  his  Win- 
ning  of  the  West,  he  did  not  fail  to  see  the 
picturesque  figure  of  Captain  Wells  among 
the  pioneer  scenes  which  he  there  delineates 
with  characteristic  vigor  and  sympathy.  We 
commemorate  his  name  and  deeds  in  our 
street  nomenclature  of  the  present  day,  and 
the  historical  interest  which  attaches  to  the 
name  of  Wells  Street  would  be  worthily  sup 
plemented  by  the  people  of  Chicago  in  the 
erection  of  a  statue  to  his  memory. 

William  Wells  and  Samuel  Wells,  the  noted 
Indian  fighters,  were  brothers  living  in  Louis 
ville,  Kentucky,  belonging  to  a  family  of  early 
settlers  in  that  region.  When  twelve  years 
of  age,  William  was  carried  off  by  a  band  of 
Miami  Indians,  whose  chief,  Little  Turtle, 
adopted  him  in  his  family.  With  this  tribe 
William  remained  some  years,  and  when  he 
arrived  at  manhood  the  chief  gave  him  his 
daughter  in  marriage.  He  became  greatly 
attached  to  the  people  of  the  tribe,  and  in  the 
[57] 


THE    STORY    OF 

disastrous  campaigns  of  Generals  Harmer  and 
St.  Clair,  in  1790  and  1791,  when  those  two 
generals  were  successively  defeated,  he  fought 
with  his  tribe  against  the  Americans. 

The  Wells  family  learned  of  William's 
presence  with  the  Indians  and  of  the  attach 
ment  he  had  formed  for  savage  life  and  soci 
ety,  and  during  one  of  the  intervals  of  peaceful 
relations  they  endeavored  to  win  him  back 
to  his  early  home  and  family  connection. 
Messages  were  sent  to  him  begging  him  to 
abandon  his  savage  life  and  return  to  his 
family.  Referring  to  this  period  in  the  life 
of  William  Wells,  Rebekah  Wells,  his  niece, 
said:  "  We  all  wanted  Uncle  William,  whom 
we  called  our  '  Indian  Uncle/  to  leave  the 
Indians  who  had  stolen  him  in  his  boyhood, 
and  come  home  and  belong  to  his  white  rela 
tions.  He  hung  back  for  years,  and  even  at 
last  when  he  agreed  to  visit  them  the  proviso 
was  made  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  bring 
along  an  Indian  escort  with  him,  so  that  he 
should  not  be  compelled  to  stay  with  them 
if  he  did  not  want  to  do  so. ' 

Accordingly  he  came  with  a  company  of 
[58] 


•i  12 


. 

..'"£  ^  •- 


rs3 


THE    &&QRY    OF 

O       ^       «•* 

disastrous  campaign^  Jfenerals  Harmer  and 
St   Glair,  in  1790  a|<^$9k  when  those  twc 
generals  were  succesiif  If  <f  feated.  he  fought 
with  his  tribe  again|$$f  |merkans 
The  Wells   fami|\f  If  rgcd  of  W 
presence  with  the  InS&|s  gnd  of  the  attacl 
ment  he  had  formed  %gsa*age  life  and 
ety.  and  during  one  o$U  itf crvah  of  peacef 
relations  they  endeaSJrfd  5o  win  him  back 
to  his  early  home  |ft  family  connec 
Messages  were  sent  *||im  begging  him  tc- 
abandon  his  savage  life  and  return  to 
family.    Referring  to^his  period  in  the 
of  William  Wells,  Re|f<ah  Wells,  his  niece, 
said-  "We  all  wantedlfncle  William,  whom 
we  called  our  •  Indi AjtScle,'  to  leave  the 
Indians  who  had  stolff  b&n  in  his  boyhood, 
and  come  home  and  bVtynjj  to  his  white  re; 
tions.     He  hung  back  tbrgyears,  and  even  i 
last  when  he  agreed  tD^gt  them  the  prov, 
was  made  that  he  shouted  fee  allowed  to  bring 
along  an  Indian  cscor^h  him,  so  that  he 
should  not  be  compdjp<f  to  stay  with  1 
if  he  did  not  want  to  do  so. ' 

Accordingly  he  catrfc  with  a  company  < 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

his  Indian  friends,  and  after  seeing  the  old 
places  and  meeting  once  more  with  his  rela 
tives,  he  became  convinced  that  he  ought  to 
remain  with  them,  though  he  decided  first 
to  return  to  his  father-in-law,  Little  Turtle, 
for  whom  he  felt  a  strong  attachment,  and 
acquaint  him  with  his  determination.  He 
frankly  told  the  chief  that  though  he  had 
lived  happily  among  his  tribe  for  many  years, 
had  fought  for  them  in  the  past  against  the 
whites,  the  time  had  now  come  when  he  was 
going  home  to  his  relatives,  thereafter  to  live 
with  and  fight  for  his  own  flesh  and  blood. 

He  was  permitted  to  depart,  and  soon  after 
joined  the  army  of  General  Anthony  Wayne, 
who  had  been  sent  into  the  Western  country 
by  President  Washington  to  repair  the  disas 
ters  that  had  overtaken  the  Americans  in  the 
previous  campaigns.  He  was  made  captain  of 
a  company  of  scouts,  and  performed  effective 
service  in  the  march  of  Wayne's  army  through 
the  wilderness,  ending  with  the  battle  of 
Fallen  Timbers,  in  the  fall  of  1794. 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  the  work  to  which  we 
have  already  referred,  relates  some  of  Wells's 
[59] 


THE    STORY    OF 

thrilling   adventures  while   engaged  in   this 
service,  among  others  the  following : 

On  one  of  Wells's  scouts  he  and  his  companions 
came  across  a  family  of  Indians  in  a  canoe  by  the  river 
bank.  The  white  woodrangers  were  as  ruthless  as 
their  red  foes,  sparing  neither  sex  nor  age;  and  the 
scouts  were  cocking  their  rifles  when  Wells  recognized 
the  Indians  as  being  the  family  into  which  he  had  been 
adopted,  and  by  which  he  had  been  treated  as  a  son 
and  brother.  Springing  forward  he  swore  immediate 
death  to  the  first  man  who  fired;  and  then  told  his 
companions  who  the  Indians  were.  The  scouts  at 
once  dropped  their  weapons,  shook  hands  with  the 
Miamis,  and  sent  them  off  unharmed. 

After  the  campaign  had  terminated  in  the 
utter  defeat  of  the  tribes,  Captain  Wells  was 
joined  by  his  Indian  wife  and  children.  Wells 
settled  on  a  farm  and  was  made  a  justice  of 
the  peace  and  appointed  Indian  agent  at  Fort 
Wayne.  His  children  "  grew  up  and  married 
well  in  the  community,"  says  Roosevelt  in  his 
history,  "so  that  their  blood  now  flows  in  the 
veins  of  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  old 
pioneers."  One  of  these  descendants,  writing 
to  the  Hon.  John  Wentworth  at  Chicago,  said 
of  his  ancestors :  "  We  are  proud  of  our  Indian 
(Little  Turtle)  blood,  and  of  our  Captain 
[60] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

Wells  blood.  We  try  to  keep  up  the  customs 
of  our  ancestors,  and  dress  occasionally  in 
Indian  costumes.  We  take  no  exceptions  when 
people  speak  of  our  Indian  parentage."  Refer 
ring  to  the  later  services  of  Captain  Wells  in 
the  Tippecanoe  campaign  and  of  his  tragic 
end  at  the  Fort  Dearborn  massacre,  this  letter- 
writer  further  says:  "We  take  pleasure  in 
sending  to  you  the  tomahawk  which  Captain 
Wells  had  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  which 
was  brought  to  his  family  by  an  Indian  who 
was  in  the  battle.  We  also  have  a  dress  sword 
which  was  presented  to  him  by  General  Will 
iam  Henry  Harrison,  and  a  great  many  books 
which  he  had,  showing  that  even  when  he 
lived  among  the  Indians  he  was  trying  to 
improve  himself." 

Wells  was  indeed  a  man  of  fair  education 
for  those  times,  as  his  correspondence,  pre 
served  in  the  American  State  Papers,  shows. 
Wentworth,  in  one  of  his  lectures,  printed  in 
the  Fergus  Historical  Series,  says  that  all 
of  Captain  Wells's  children  were  well  edu 
cated,  one  of  them,  William  Wayne  Wells, 
having  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1821. 
[61] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Little  Turtle,  the  Miami  chief,  and  father- 
in-law  of  Captain  Wells,  became  reconciled 
to  the  Americans  after  Wayne's  victory  at  the 
battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  and  indeed  became 
their  fast  friend  to  the  end  of  his  life.  In 
1797,  three  years  after  the  battle,  Captain 
Wells  accompanied  Little  Turtle  on  a  visit  to 
the  East,  and  no  doubt  met  President  Wash 
ington  himself  at  the  seat  of  government, 
which  was  at  that  time  in  Philadelphia.  Little 
Turtle  was  frequently  at  Chicago  during  the 
following  years,  but  lived  near  Fort  Wayne, 
where  he  died  in  July,  1812.  This  was  only 
a  few  weeks  before  the  dreadful  massacre  of 
that  year.  Wells  himself  was  also  a  frequent 
visitor  at  Chicago  during  these  years  and  was 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  surrounding 
country. 

Some  account  of  the  Indian  tribes  and  their 
chiefs  will  aid  the  reader  in  obtaining  a 
clearer  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  sur 
roundings  of  the  garrison  and  the  few  civilian 
traders  dwelling  at  this  remote  outpost  of  the 
frontier,  during  the  next  few  years  after  the 
establishment  of  Fort  Dearborn. 
[62] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

The  Potawatamis  were  the  principal  tribe 
of  Indians  met  with  by  the  whites  in  the  vicin 
ity  of  Fort  Dearborn  in  1803,  and  they  con 
tinued  here  until  their  final  removal  to  their 
new  reservations  in  1835.  Other  tribes  were 
represented  by  occasional  parties  camping  in 
their  wigwams  on  the  banks  of  the  river  near 
the  fort.  Among  such  visitors  were  Winne- 
bagoes,  Miamis,  Ottawas,  and  Chippewas. 

When  the  early  explorers  passed  over  the 
Chicago  Portage  more  than  a  century  before, 
they  found  the  Illinois  Indians  in  possession  of 
most  of  the  territory  of  what  is  now  the  north 
ern  portion  of  Illinois;  but  their  country  was 
frequently  invaded  by  the  Iroquois  Indians 
from  the  East  and  their  allies,  and  their  num 
bers  rapidly  diminished,  until  the  last  remnant 
of  the  tribe  was  exterminated,  about  the  year 
1770,  at  Starved  Rock,  on  the  Illinois  River. 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  here  that  more  Indians 
perished  and  more  tribes  were  exterminated  in 
intertribal  conflicts  than  in  all  the  wars  that 
have  taken  place  between  the  white  race  and 
the  red. 

The  Potawatami  tribe  had  formerly  made 
[63] 


THE    STORY    OF 

their  abiding-place  near  the  shores  of  Green 
Bay,  except  when  roaming  in  quest  of  game 
into  neighboring  regions.  A  portion  of  the 
tribe,  which  was  scattered  over  the  south 
ern  peninsula  of  Michigan  and  continually 
advancing  toward  the  south,  began  to  press 
upon  the  Illinois  tribes,  which  included, 
besides  the  Illinois,  the  Kickapoos  and 
Miamis.  The  Indians  from  Michigan  in 
time  succeeded  in  reaching  the  region  of  the 
Chicago  Portage,  where  they  met  the  south 
ward  advance  of  their  former  friends  from 
Wisconsin,  from  whom  they  had  been  long 
separated.  The  Michigan  Indians,  when  they 
appeared  in  this  region,  became  known  as  the 
"Potawatamis  of  the  Woods,"  or  "Woods 
Indians,"  while  those  who  had  come  from 
Wisconsin  more  recently,  having  in  their 
movements  wandered  over  the  prairie  coun 
try,  became  known  as  the  "  Potawatamis  of 
the  Prairies,"  or  the  "  Prairie  Band."  The 
latter  were  also  often  referred  to  as  "  Plains 
Indians."  The  two  divisions  of  the  tribe,  hav 
ing  thus  met  after  so  long  a  separation,  had 
become  quite  different  from  each  other  in 
[64] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

their  habits  and  customs,  and  also  in  their  dis 
position  and  character. 

The  Woods  Indians  were  engaged  in  agri 
culture  to  some  extent,  and  were  susceptible 
to  the  influences  of  civilization  and  religion; 
the  Prairie  Indians  "  despised  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil,"  says  Judge  Caton,  "  as  too  mean 
even  for  their  women  and  children,  and 
deemed  the  captures  of  the  chase  the  only  fit 
food  for  a  valorous  people."  In  other  re 
spects  the  two  divisions  were  regarded  as  a 
single  tribe.  The  northern  portion  of  Illinois 
was  particularly  the;  possession  of  the  Pota- 
watamis,  over  which  they  ranged  freely, 
though  Chicago  and  its  immediate  vicinity 
was  the  most  important  point  in  their  terri 
tory  where  councils  were  held  and  trading 
was  carried  on. 

Caton  writes: 

The  relations  existing  between  the  Potawatamis 
and  the  Ottawas  were  of  the  most  harmonious  char 
acter.  They  lived  together  almost  as  one  people,  and 
were  joint  owners  of  their  hunting  grounds.  Their 
relations  were  quite  as  intimate  and  friendly  as  existed 
among  the  different  bands  of  the  same  tribe.  Nor 
were  the  Chippewas  scarcely  more  strangers  to  the 

[65] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Potawatamis  and  the  Ottawas  than  the  latter  were  to 
each  other.  They  claimed  an  interest  in  the  land 
occupied,  to  a  certain  extent  by  all  jointly,  so  that  all 
three  tribes  joined  in  the  first  treaty  for  the  sale  of 
their  lands  ever  made  to  the  United  States. 

The  relations  existing  between  the  whites 
in  and  around  Fort  Dearborn  and  their 
Indian  neighbors  were  generally  harmonious 
throughout  the  interval  of  time  from  the  first 
occupation  of  the  fort  in  1803  until  1811, 
when  Tecumseh  became  active  in  stirring  up 
the  Western  tribes  to  oppose  the  settlement 
of  Western  lands  by  the  whites.  Tecumseh 
was  a  chief  of  the  Shawnee  tribe,  whose  coun 
try  was  on  the  lower  Wabash.  He  believed 
that  this  country  was  created  by  the  Great 
Spirit  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Indians, 
and  that  the  grants  of  land  made  by  the  tribes 
in  their  treaties  with  the  United  States  Gov 
ernment  were  not  valid  or  binding  unless  the 
consent  of  "  all  the  tribes  of  the  continent"  had 
been  obtained. 

This  contention  was  regarded  as  preposter 
ous,  and  Tecumseh  was  informed  that  such  a 
principle  could  not  be  allowed.  He  then  suc 
ceeded  in  forming  a  league  of  several  tribes 
[66] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

under  his  leadership,  and  hostilities  soon 
after  began  against  the  settlers  and  the  United 
States  Government.  In  November,  1811,  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe  was  fought  between 
General  William  Henry  Harrison,  Governor 
of  Indiana  Territory,  and  commander  of  the 
American  forces,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  tribes  under  Tecumseh's  brother,  the 
"Prophet,"  on  the  other,  Tecumseh  himself 
being  temporarily  absent.  The  Indians  were 
badly  defeated.  Tecumseh  took  refuge  in 
Canada,  where  he  joined  the  British,  who 
were  soon  afterwards  at  war  with  the  United 
States.  He  was  killed  while  fighting  on  the 
side  of  the  British  at  the  battle  of  the  Thames, 
October  6,  1813. 

Many  of  the  Indians  of  the  Potawatami 
tribe  sympathized  with  Tecumseh,  and  it  was 
well  known  that  some  of  the  chiefs  and  many 
of  the  Indians  were  present  at  the  battle  of 
Tippecanoe  among  the  enemies  of  the  Amer 
icans.  But  in  spite  of  the  malign  influence  of 
Tecumseh,  the  Indians  conducted  themselves 
generally  in  a  peaceable  manner  while  in  the 
vicinity  of  Fort  Dearborn,  and  seemed  anxious 
[67] 


THE    STORY    OF 

to  be  regarded  as  friendly  toward  their  white 
neighbors. 

The  Indians  continued  to  come  and  go  on 
their  nomadic  excursions  according  to  their 
habit,  and  while  in  this  vicinity  they  lived 
in  their  wigwams  near  the  river,  their  favorite 
camping  place  being  at  a  point  on  the  south 
bank  near  the  present  State  Street  bridge.  A 
swale  or  gully  opened  into  the  river  there, 
reaching  back  as  far  as  the  present  line  of 
Randolph  Street.  The  movements  of  the 
Indians  were  regarded  with  great  interest  by 
the  traders  located  in  the  neighborhood,  who 
were  anxious  to  sell  them  supplies  in  exchange 
for  the  furs  brought  in  by  them;  they  were 
regarded  with  interest  also  by  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  garrison,  who  desired  to 
maintain  peaceable  relations  with  their  sav 
age  neighbors. 

But  while  furs  were  the  principal  article 
offered  in  payment  for  goods  obtained  from 
the  traders,  the  Indians  also  brought  in  quanti 
ties  of  maple  sugar  put  up  in  birch-bark  pack 
ages,  which  usually  found  ready  sale  among 
the  settlers.  These  packages  were  called 
[68] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

" barks"  by  some  and  "mococks"  by  others, 
each  of  them  containing  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty  pounds.  Birkbeck  says,  in  his  Letters 
from  Illinois,  written  in  1818,  that  maple 
sugar  could  be  purchased  from  the  Indians  for 
about  twenty-five  cents  a  pound,  which  was 
about  the  same  price  as  the  coarse  brown  or 
"muscovado"  sugar  from  Louisiana  was  sold 
for.  In  his  book  of  reminiscences  of  early 
Chicago,  Gale  tells  us  that  he  remembers  as 
a  boy  how  he  prized  the  granulated  maple 
sugar  which  he  bought  from  the  squaws,  "  put 
up  in  small  birch-bark  boxes,  ornamented  with 
colored  grasses,  and  in  large  baskets  made  of 
the  same  material,  holding  some  twenty-five 
pounds."  It  was  often  called  "  Indian  sugar." 
When  the  Indians  visited  the  settlements  it 
was  their  custom  to  wander  about  the  streets 
in  an  aimless  manner,  stopping  from  time  to 
time  and  taking  a  look  into  the  window  of 
any  house  they  happened  to  be  passing.  The 
Indians,  whether  men,  women,  or  children, 
would  cover  the  tops  of  their  heads  with 
blankets  to  exclude  the  light,  and  press  their 
faces  against  the  window  panes  and  gaze 


THE    STORY    OF 

intently  into  the  houses  for  long  periods  at  a 
time,  to  the  great  discomfort  and  even  terror 
of  the  people  within.  If  they  wished  to 
enter  a  house  they  did  not  pause  to  knock,  but 
stalked  in  and  squatted  on  the  floor,  and  none 
dared  to  resist  them  or  to  order  them  to  depart 
from  the  premises.  "  You  always  heard  a  man 
come  in,"  says  Mrs.  Baird,  in  her  narrative, 
"  as  his  step  was  firm,  proud,  and  full  of  dig 
nity.  The  women,  however,  made  no  sound." 

There  were  several  chiefs  of  the  Potawat- 
ami  tribe  whose  names  are  well  known  in  the 
historic  annals  of  that  time.  One  of  them 
was  Black  Partridge,  often  called  "  the  Par 
tridge"  ;  there  were  also  Winnemeg,  or,  as 
he  was  sometimes  called,  Winamac;  Wau- 
bansee;  Topenebe;  Billy  Caldwell,  otherwise 
known  as  Sauganash  or  "the  Sauganash," 
meaning  Englishman,  as  he  was  an  educated 
half-breed;  and  Alexander  Robinson. 

On  account  of  the  close  and  friendly  rela 
tions  existing  between  the  whites  and  the  Pota- 
watamis,  the  latter  were  usually  spoken  of  as 
"our  Indians,"  to  distinguish  them  from 
those  tribes  whose  hunting  grounds  were  at 
[70] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

a  greater  distance.  The  Winnebagoes  from 
the  north  were  occasional  visitors  to  the 
neighborhood,  as  were  also  tribes  from  the 
south,  —  Miamis  and  others,  —  who  were  gen 
erally  referred  to  as  "  Wabash  Indians." 

When  councils  were  held  between  the  rep 
resentatives  of  the  Government  and  the  tribes, 
to  agree  on  a  treaty,  all  those  tribes  were  in 
attendance  which  could  be  allowed  to  have 
any  claims  to  ownership  of  lands  that  were 
the  subject  of  the  treaties  about  to  be  made. 
At  such  assemblages,  whenever  they  were  held 
in  the  Western  country,  the  Potawatamis  were 
always  found  fully  represented  by  their  chiefs 
and  a  large  number  of  their  followers,  insist 
ing  upon  recognition  of  their  claims;  and 
they  thus  succeeded  in  getting  the  lion's  share 
in  the  distributions  made  by  the  Government; 
and  even  though  their  claims  were  often  vague 
and  ill-defined  they  were  always  noisy  and 
forward  in  asserting  them.  It  thus  happened 
that  the  Indians  of  the  Potawatami  tribe  were 
greatly  interested  in  keeping  on  good  terms 
with  the  whites. 

The  Indians  in  their  harangues  described 


THE    STORY    OF 

an  assemblage  held  for  purposes  of  delib 
eration  as  a  place  where  a  council  fire  was 
lighted;  and  in  referring  to  the  United  States 
Government  the  Indian  orators  spoke  of  the 
States  of  the  Union — which  in  1811  were 
seventeen  in  number — as  the  nation  of  "the 
Seventeen  Fires,"  that  is,  seventeen  council 
fires. 

In  a  former  generation  the  Potawatamis 
were  "  French  Indians"  in  their  sympathies 
and  trade  relations;  and  this  allegiance  con 
tinued  up  to  and  even  after  the  close  of  the 
French  regime  in  1763.  They  were  reluctant 
to  acknowledge  the  sway  of  the  British  dur 
ing  the  period  of  their  possession,  but  through 
the  commanding  influence  of  the  New  York 
Indians  (the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations)  they 
kept  the  peace  that  was  guaranteed  by  the 
Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  in  1768.  This  treaty 
was  made  between  the  English  and  the  Iro 
quois  with  " their  dependent  tribes"  ;  and  it 
was  understood  that  the  said  treaty  bound  the 
Western  Indians,  though  afterwards  the  lat 
ter  resented  the  proceedings.  Narrowing  the 
view  to  the  Potawatami  tribe,  it  appears  that 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

even  while  maintaining  friendly  relations  with 
the  Americans  after  the  latter  had  succeeded 
to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Western  territories, 
the  tribe  was  still  to  a  certain  extent  under 
British  influence.  They  shared  in  the  gratui 
ties  annually  distributed  by  the  English  at 
Maiden,  Canada;  and,  as  the  event  will  show, 
they  at  length  became  the  enemies  of  the 
Americans  after  the  War  of  1812  had  begun. 

There  was  a  tract  of  land  under  cultivation 
some  four  miles  southwest  of  the  fort,  situated 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  South  Branch  of  the 
Chicago  River,  about  where  at  the  present 
time  the  old  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal 
opens  into  that  stream.  This  tract  was  owned 
by  a  man  named  Charles  Lee,  and  the  farm 
was  known  as  "  Lee's  place." 

On  this  tract  stood  a  log  cabin  in  which 
a  number  of  men  employed  by  Lee  lived  and 
carried  on  the  work  of  the  farm.  Lee  himself 
lived  with  his  family  in  a  house  near  the  fort 
on  the  bank  of  the  river  opposite  where  it  dis 
charged  into  the  lake;  which  was  near  the 
present  intersection  of  Madison  Street  and 
Michigan  Avenue.  It  will  be  remembered 
[73] 


THE    STORY    OF 

that  in  those  days  a  long  sandbar  prevented 
the  river  from  finding  an  outlet  directly  in 
line  with  its  course,  and  the  current  was  forced 
to  creep  along  close  to  the  shore  for  some 
distance  toward  the  south. 

Lee's  place  was  also  known  as  "  Hardscrab- 
ble,"  a  name  which  continued  to  be  applied 
to  that  neighborhood  for  many  decades  there 
after.  "The  name  of  '  Hardscrabble,' "  it  is 
said  in  a  recent  history  of  Chicago,  "has 
always  been  a  favorite  one  among  pioneers  to 
describe  a  place  in  which  conditions  of  exist 
ence  were  hard  and  difficult.  A  place  of  that 
name  was  situated  near  Lewiston,  New  York, 
on  the  Niagara  River,  about  the  same  period, 
and  is  mentioned  in  military  despatches  dur 
ing  the  ensuing  War  of  1812;  and  in  the 
State  of  Illinois  the  town  of  Streator  was  thus 
colloquially  known  during  its  earlier  history." 
Before  the  Civil  War,  General  Grant  lived  on 
a  farm  near  St.  Louis,  where  he  built  a  log 
cabin  with  his  own  hands  and  called  it "  Hard- 
scrabble."  The  same  name  was  given  to  a 
work  of  fiction  by  Major  John  Richardson, 
with  the  subtitle  "A  Tale  of  Indian  War- 
[74] 


THE    STORY    OF 


-  1"- 


that  in  those  da\|  ^5  ^  *'s  ^ and bar  prevented 

the  river  from  fis1!^-^ US  outlet  directly  in 

10 1^  ^''^  s 
line  with  its  cours|,|i|^  |'&|  urrent  was  forced 

to  creep  along  dk$|  |tg:^the  shore  for  some 
distance  toward  tf  c||:>||$ij  | 

Lee's  place  wasi'4soj4i|)Wn  as  "  Hardscrab- 
ble,"  a  name  vvhft|  (|'ft|i|iied  to  be  applied 
to  that  neighborhS(|d  fef'^iitny  decades  there 
after.  "The  nar^olt^i|rd«crabblefM'  it  is 
said  in  a  recento'ffjs&M  !)f  aChicairo,  tkhas 


«. 

always  been  a  iavi|iu|(i^^iiig'ng  pioneers  to 

. ,  JL  s   <"*•  ^S  ^    9P»  • 

describe  a  place  uj^v,?c  tions  of  exist- 

S-  S          ft  '<»    O    "^       ^ 

ence  were  hard  ar|(|tit^Vl|t.  wA  place  of  that 
name  \vas  situatecf  Sea?  |^|/i§on,  New  York, 

^    ^          K^  **s*       * 

on  the  Niagara  iS^r^ab!^  ^e  same  period, 

i  •  •        i^^    ^'1^ 5 

and  is  mentioned ^    I  ~fcfc£v  dc  ?s  dur- 

^    S         sg   O  o    g 

ing  the  ensuing  ^f-aig  |f^ 812:  and  In  the 
State  of  Illinois  t|c!.toi|  I?  Streator  was  thus 

5s         a  ^  QJ  § 

colloquially  knowrnsduJ^i|i-ts  earlier  history." 
Before  the  Civil  \\^tr,|Jl^ral  Grant  lived  on 
a  farm  near  St.  L&ihg'Ufllere  he  built  a  log 

cabin  with  his  own  larfrS  ai|d  called  it "  Hard- 

\r^  *>*•  «^ 

scrabble."     The  s^ne  a^Se  was  given  to  a 

<*     M  f  s-  ^ 

work  of  fiction  bySi^yfei<§|John  Richardson, 

with  the  subtitle  "A  Tale  of  Indian  War- 

[74] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

fare."  This  work  takes  the  events  which 
occurred  at  Lee's  place  and  bases  upon  them 
a  romance  the  details  of  which  the  author 
supplied  largely  from  his  imagination.  Many 
other  examples  of  the  use  o'f  this  name  might 
be  given. 

On  the  seventh  of  April  of  the  fateful  year 
1812  the  log  house  at  Hardscrabble  was  occu 
pied  by  three  men  and  a  boy.  The  man  who 
seems  to  have  been  in  charge  of  the  work  at 
the  farm  was  one  Liberty  White,  and  with 
him  were  a  discharged  soldier,  also  a  French 
man  named  Debou,  and  the  boy,  a  son  of 
Mr.  Lee's.  Communication  between  the  farm 
and  the  fort  was  usually  maintained  by  means 
of  canoes.  The  products  of  the  farm  found 
a  ready  market  at  the  fort,  thus  supplementing 
the  supplies  for  the  garrison  coming  in  the 
regular  way  by  lake  schooners. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  mentioned  a 
party  of  soldiers  from  the  fort,  consisting  of 
a  corporal  and  six  men,  had  obtained  leave  to 
go  up  the  river  to  catch  a  supply  of  fish,  with 
which  the  stream  at  that  time  abounded.  The 
party  went  up  the  South  Branch,  passing  Lee's 
[75] 


THE    STORY    OF 

place,  with  the  usual  exchange  of  greetings, 
and  at  length  reached  a  point  some  two  miles 
beyond,  where  they  remained  engaged  in  fish 
ing  until  nearly  dark.  Suddenly  they  were 
startled  by  hearing  the  dull  boom  of  a  cannon 
which  they  knew  at  once  to  be  a  danger  sig 
nal  from  the  fort,  and  as  they  surmised 
was  caused  by  some  manifestation  of  Indian 
hostility. 

Hastily  starting  on  their  return,  they  soon 
came  to  Lee's  place,  which,  they  observed, 
was  silent  and  deserted.  It  was  now  quite 
dark,  and  the  party  drew  up  to  the  bank, 
meantime  calling  and  shouting,  but  receiving 
no  answer.  The  mysterious  silence  which 
enveloped  the  place  seemed  to  indicate  that 
the  occupants  whom  they  had  seen  there  a  few 
hours  before  had  suddenly  become  alarmed 
and  had  perhaps  fled  toward  the  fort,  if  indeed 
something  worse  had  not  befallen  them.  The 
corporal  knew  that  the  commandant  would 
require  a  full  report  of  the  matter,  and  he 
at  once  began  an  investigation.  Stepping 
ashore,  the  corporal  and  his  men  cautiously 
advanced  toward  the  house,  in  which  there 

[76] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

was  not  a  glimmer  of  light,  and  from  which 
issued  no  sound  of  human  voice.  As  they 
groped  their  way  along  they  stumbled  upon 
the  body  of  a  man  lying  on  the  ground,  and 
by  the  sense  of  touch  the  corporal  quickly 
ascertained  that  the  head  was  without  a  scalp 
and  the  body  mutilated.  "The  faithful  dog 
of  the  murdered  man,"  says  the  account  from 
which  the  narrative  is  derived,  "  stood  guard 
ing  the  lifeless  remains  of  his  master."  The 
party  now  reembarked  and  proceeded  on  their 
way  to  the  fort  without  further  adventure, 
where  they  arrived  about  eleven  o'clock  at 
night  and  made  a  report  to  the  commandant 
of  what  they  had  seen. 

We  now  return  to  the  log  house  at  Hard- 
scrabble  and  to  the  dreadful  occurrences 
which  took  place  there  on  that  eventful 
afternoon.  After  the  fishing  party  had  passed 
up  the  river  beyond  the  farmhouse  a  wander 
ing  band  of  Indians  appeared  at  the  door 
of  the  cabin,  and  according  to  the  custom 
of  savages  they  entered  and  seated  them 
selves  on  the  floor  without  ceremony.  Their 
deportment  was  sullen  and  unfriendly,  and 

[77] 


THE    STORY    OF 

this  circumstance  aroused  the  suspicions  of  the 
men  in  the  cabin.  One  of  them,  the  French 
man  Debou,  remarked  to  Liberty  White :  "  I 
do  not  like  the  appearance  of  the  Indians; 
they  are  none  of  our  folks.  I  know  by  their 
dress  and  paint  that  they  are  not  Potawat- 
amis."  Another  one  of  the  white  men,  the 
discharged  soldier,  then  said  to  the  boy  Lee: 
"If  that  is  the  case  we  had  better  get  away 
from  them  if  we  can.  Say  nothing,  but  do  as 
you  see  me  do." 

As  the  afternoon  was  then  far  advanced, 
the  discharged  soldier  passed  out  of  the  house 
and  walked  in  a  deliberate  manner  down  the 
path  toward  the  canoes  tied  up  at  the  river 
bank,  accompanied  by  the  boy  Lee.  Some  of 
the  Indians  inquired  where  they  were  going. 
The  soldier  pointed  to  the  cattle  standing 
among  the  haystacks  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river  and  made  signs  that  they  must  go 
over  and  fodder  them  and  that  they  would 
then  come  back  and  get  supper  for  them  all. 

The  boy  got  into  one  of  the  canoes  while  the 
man  took  possession  of  the  other.  The  stream 
was  narrow  and  they  quickly  passed  over  to 
[78] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

the  eastern  side.  Here  they  pulled  some  hay 
from  the  stacks  for  the  cattle,  and  made  a 
show  of  collecting  them  together,  and  when 
they  had  gradually  made  a  circuit  so  that  their 
movements  were  concealed  by  the  haystacks 
they  made  a  run  for  the  woods  which  were 
near  at  hand  and  directed  their  course  toward 
the  fort  as  fast  as  their  legs  could  carry  them. 

When  they  had  covered  a  distance  of  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  in  their  flight  they  heard 
the  sound  of  two  gunshots,  which  they  readily 
conjectured  were  fired  by  the  strange  Indians 
upon  the  two  men,  Liberty  White  and  the 
Frenchman  Debou.  The  man  and  boy  did 
not  slacken  their  speed  until  they  had  reached 
the  river  somewhere  near  the  present  location 
of  State  Street  bridge.  Here  they  paused 
long  enough  to  call  out  to  John  Burns,  then 
living  in  a  cabin  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
river  near  that  point,  to  hasten  to  the  fort 
with  his  family,  as  the  Indians  were  killing 
and  scalping  up  the  river  at  Lee's  place. 

Mrs.  John  Kinzie  was  at  the  Burns  house 
at  that  moment  to  render  what  aid  she  could 
to  Mrs.  Burns,  who  but  a  few  hours  before 
[79] 


THE    STORY    OF 

had  been  delivered  of  a  child.  She  instantly 
left  the  house  and  ran  to  her  own  home,  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  to  give  the  alarm 
and  procure  help  for  the  sick  woman.  She 
found  the  family  awaiting  her  return,  the 
table  spread  for  supper,  while  Mr.  Kinzie 
was  playing  on  his  violin  and  the  children 
dancing  before  the  fire. 

Rushing  into  the  house,  quite  out  of  breath 
and  pale  with  terror,  she  was  only  able  to 
exclaim:  "The  Indians!  the  Indians!" 

"The  Indians?  What?  Where?"  they  all 
demanded  at  once.  Recovering  herself  for 
a  moment,  she  replied:  "Up  at  Lee's  place, 
killing  and  scalping!"  She  then  proceeded 
to  relate  that  while  she  was  at  Burns's  house 
a  man  and  boy  were  seen  running  with  all 
speed  along  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river; 
that  they  had  called  across  the  river,  warning 
the  Burns  family  to  save  themselves,  for  the 
Indians  were  at  Lee's  place,  killing  and  scalp 
ing,  and  that  they  themselves  had  barely  been 
able  to  make  their  escape.  The  man  and 
boy  had  then  continued  on  their  way  as  fast 
as  they  could  toward  the  fort,  where  they 
[80] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

reported  the  terrifying  news  to  the  officers  of 
the  garrison. 

"All  was  now  consternation  and  dismay," 
says  the  author  of  Wau-Bun,  from  which  these 
particulars  are  gathered.  The  Kinzie  family 
hurried  to  the  river  side  and,  by  means  of 
two  old  pirogues,  or  dugouts,  that  were  kept 
moored  near  the  house,  made  all  possible  haste 
across  the  river  and  took  refuge  in  the  fort. 

We  can  but  faintly  realize  what  a  consum 
ing  terror  seized  upon  the  pioneers  when  the 
cry  was  heard  that  hostile  Indians  were  com 
ing.  Often  the  alarm  and  the  attack  were 
simultaneous,  for  however  quick  and  resource 
ful  the  whites  might  be,  the  savages  were 
superior  to  them  in  one  respect  at  least:  their 
stealthy  advance  and  cat-like  spring  upon  their 
foes  usually  gave  them  the  advantage  at  the 
beginning,  which  was  followed  by  brutal 
ferocity  and  unsparing  cruelty  in  the  treat 
ment  of  their  victims. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  Mrs.  Kinzie  was  ter 
rified  at  the  mention  of  the  approach  of  hostile 
Indians.  In  her  childhood,  as  previously  re 
lated,  she  had  been  stolen  by  a  tribe  of  Seneca 
[81] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Indians  in  New  York  State  and  had  lived 
among  them  for  four  years.  She  knew  Indian 
ways  in  peace  and  warfare,  and  she  knew  that 
now  at  any  moment  the  war-whoop  might  be 
heard  and  the  savages  be  upon  them.  Not 
until  she  had  crossed  the  threshold  of  the 
fort  gates  with  her  family  about  her  could 
she  feel  a  sensation  of  even  temporary  se 
curity. 

After  the  fugitives  from  Lee's  place  had 
reached  the  fort  and  related  their  adventures 
the  order  was  given  to  fire  the  alarm  gun  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  notice  to  any  who  were 
at  a  distance  from  the  fort,  and  especially  to 
the  boat  party,  who  were  far  up  the  South 
Branch  of  the  river,  that  danger  was  im 
pending. 

Energetic  measures  were  at  once  taken  to 
secure  the  safety  of  the  helpless  Mrs.  Burns 
and  her  infant.  It  was  the  gallant  young 
Ensign  Ronan  who  volunteered  for  this  duty 
and,  with  five  or  six  others  who  joined  him, 
navigated  an  old  scow  up  the  river  to  the 
Burns  house,  took  the  mother  and  her  infant 
child,  together  with  the  mattress  upon  which 
[82] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

they  lay,  placed  them  on  the  scow,  and  soon 
had  them  within  the  walls  of  the  fort,  where 
they  were  tenderly  cared  for,  and  where  all 
gathered  felt  perfectly  safe. 

The  anxiety  felt  by  all  regarding  the  safety 
of  the  still  absent  boat  party  was  at  length 
relieved  by  its  appearance  at  a  late  hour. 
Their  tale  was  soon  told,  confirming  and 
amplifying  the  alarming  details  related  by 
the  fugitives  who  had  so  narrowly  escaped 
with  their  own  lives. 

On  the  morning  following  the  events  just 
narrated  a  party  of  volunteers  made  up  of 
soldiers  and  civilians  went  up  the  river  to 
Lee's  place.  There  they  found  the  bodies  of 
Liberty  White  and  the  Frenchman  Debou 
pierced  with  many  wounds,  the  former  hav 
ing  received  the  two  shots  heard  by  the  fugi 
tives,  and  the  latter  bearing  the  marks  of 
numerous  knife  thrusts.  The  scalps  of  the 
murdered  men  had  been  taken  by  the  Indians. 
The  scalping  process,  which  was  practised  by 
all  the  tribes  of  American  Indians,  has  always 
added  an  element  of  horror  to  the  outrages 
committed  by  them.  The  bodies  of  the  mur- 
[83] 


THE    STORY    OF 

dered  men  were  brought  to  the  fort  and  buried 
in  its  immediate  vicinity. 

The  few  inhabitants  of  the  place  living  out 
side  the  fort,  consisting  of  discharged  soldiers 
and  half-breeds,  now  took  measures  to  defend 
themselves  against  a  possible  attack  from  the 
Indians,  which  they  fully  expected  to  follow. 
They  planked  up  the  long  piazzas  of  the 
Agency  House,  which  stood  a  short  distance 
west  of  the  fort  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and 
cut  loopholes  through  the  planks  for  use  of 
musketry.  Greater  watchfulness  was  exer 
cised  by  the  garrison,  and  every  preparation 
was  made  to  resist  attack. 

It  was  afterward  learned  through  traders 
out  in  the  Indian  country  that  the  perpetrators 
of  this  bloody  deed  were  a  band  of  Winne- 
bago  Indians  who  came  into  this  neighbor 
hood  to  "  take  some  white  scalps."  Their  plan 
had  been  to  massacre  all  the  men  at  the  farm 
and  then  proceed  down  the  river  and  kill 
every  white  man  who  could  be  found  outside 
the  walls  of  the  fort.  This  plan  they  had 
partially  carried  out  as  we  have  seen,  but 
hearing  the  sound  of  the  cannon  fired  at  the 

[84] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

fort,  which  they  knew  would  alarm  all  the 
whites  of  the  neighborhood,  and  having  no 
further  hope  of  coming  upon  them  by  sur 
prise,  they  thought  it  best  to  remain  satisfied 
with  what  they  had  already  accomplished,  and 
hastily  returned  to  their  villages  on  Rock 
River. 

The  tragedy  at  Lee's  place  was  no  doubt  the 
result  of  the  hostility  awakened  among  the 
Indians  of  the  western  country  by  the  malign 
influence  of  Tecumseh  communicated  through 
the  various  tribes  of  the  Wabash  Indians, 
among  whom  he  was  regarded  as  the  cham 
pion  of  Indian  rights.  The  battle  of  Tippe- 
canoe,  which  had  apparently  crushed  his 
power,  was  fought  in  the  previous  September; 
but  he  had  renewed  his  activity  from  the  safe 
shelter  of  the  British  dominions  in  Canada, 
where  he  had  taken  refuge,  and  as  it  was  plain 
to  all  observers  at  this  time  that  war  between 
England  and  the  United  States  was  inevitablej 
the  friendship  of  that  chief  was  regarded  as 
desirable  by  the  former.  Indeed,  he  and  his 
tribesmen  became  an  integral  part  of  the 
British  forces. 

[85] 


THE    STORY    OF 

But  as  the  days  and  weeks  passed  by,  and  the 
friendly  Indians  of  the  neighborhood  ex 
plained  that  the  attacking  party  at  Lee's  place 
were  Winnebagoes,  with  whose  hostility  they 
had  no  sympathy,  the  tension  of  feeling  was 
gradually  relieved  and  more  dependence  came 
to  be  placed  on  the  peaceable  disposition  of 
the  Potawatamis.  The  vigilance  of  the  gar 
rison  was  relaxed,  as  it  seemed  to  all  that  no 
further  outbreak  was  likely  to  occur.  The 
whites  became  convinced  at  length  that  no 
connection  existed  between  the  Winnebagoes 
concerned  in  the  attack  at  Lee's  place  and 
the  other  tribes  in  the  vicinity,  and  that  no 
concert  of  action  was  apparent  between  the 
different  tribes.  Thus  the  memory  of  the 
bloody  deed  was  permitted  to  slumber,  and  no 
serious  attempt  was  made  to  bring  the  per 
petrators  to  account.  In  fact,  the  feeling  of 
unrest  among  the  savages  in  general  through 
out  the  country  was  such  that  it  seemed  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  postpone  any  schemes  of 
reprisal  or  punishment  that  the  whites  might 
have  entertained  until  the  times  were  more 
propitious.  The  excitement  and  fear  which 
[86] 


OLT>    FORT    DEARBORN 

such  an  outrage  usually  inspired  among  the 
people    of    the    frontiers    wore    off    by    de 
grees,  and  the  ordinary  activities  of  life  were 
resumed. 
Thus  for  a  year  or  more  there  had  been 

v 

intermittent  alarms  of  Indian  attacks  and  out 
rages  before  the  final  catastrophe.  Besides 
the  murders  committed  in  this  region  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  western  country,  the  horses 
and  cattle  of  settlers  had  been  stolen.  On  one 
occasion,  when  marauders  failed  to  find 
horses  in  the  stable  near  the  fort,  they  wan 
tonly  killed  a  number  of  sheep  found  on  the 
premises. 

A  significant  incident  occurred  within  the 
walls  of  the  fort  a  few  months  preceding  its 
destruction.  It  is  related  that  two  Indians 
from  a  northern  tribe  had  been  admitted  to 
the  fort  as  visitors.  They  noticed  Mrs.  Heald 
and  Mrs.  Helm  playing  at  battledore  on  the 
parade  ground  opposite  the  officers'  quarters. 
One  of  the  Indians  turned  to  the  interpreter 
and  said :  "  The  white  chiefs'  wives  are  amus 
ing  themselves  very  much ;  it  will  not  be  long 
before  they  are  hoeing  in  our  cornfields!" 
[87] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Not  much  importance  was  attached  to  the 
remark  at  the  time  but  it  was  afterward  bit 
terly  remembered. 

The  following  is  a  brief  summary  of  the 
important  national  events  which  occurred 
during  the  years  from  1803  to  1812,  concur 
rent  with  and  of  especial  interest  to  this 
narrative. 

The  Louisiana  Purchase,  consummated  on 
April  30,  1803,  added  a  vast  extent  of  terri 
tory  to  the  American  possessions  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  and  greatly  increased  the  respon 
sibilities  of  the  general  Government.  The 
public  men  of  that  day  but  faintly  realized 
the  consequences  that  would  follow  the  im 
mense  addition  to  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  thus  brought  about,  though  with  char 
acteristic  energy  and  good  sense  they  set  about 
the  task  of  developing  the  new  domain. 

"The  winning  of  Louisiana,"  says  Roose 
velt,  in  his  Winning  of  the  West,  "followed 
inevitably  upon  the  great  westward  thrust  of 
the  settlerfolk,  a  thrust  which  was  delivered 
blindly,  but  which  no  rival  race  could  parry, 
until  it  was  stopped  by  the  ocean  itself." 
[88] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

The  entire  area  of  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Illinois  was,  in  1803,  a  Part  °f  Indiana  Ter 
ritory,  which  had  been  organized  three  years 
before,  with  William  Henry  Harrison,  then 
a  young  man  of  twenty-seven,  as  first  Gov 
ernor.  It  was  not  until  February,  1809,  that 
Illinois  Territory  was  organized,  with  Ninian 
Edwards  as  the  first  Governor.  No  civil  gov 
ernment  was  in  existence  at  Chicago ;  the  first 
authority,  as  at  all  frontier  posts,  was  military. 
The  only  people  here  during  the  period  of 
which  we  are  writing,  besides  the  few  traders 
we  have  mentioned  and  their  helpers,  were 
the  officers  and  soldiers  of  Fort  Dearborn,  and 
they  were  of  course  under  military  authority 
and  discipline.  All  orders  came  to  the  cap 
tain  commanding  at  the  fort  through  the  com 
mandant  at  Detroit,  Colonel  Jacob  Kingsbury, 
until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Eng 
land,  when  General  William  Hull,  previously 
the  Governor  of  Michigan  Territory,  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  Northwestern 
army  then  assembling  at  Detroit.  Orders 
thenceforth  issued  from  the  commanding 
general. 

[89] 


THE    STORY    OF 

The  southern  portion  of  the  territory  now 
within  the  bounds  of  the  State  of  Illinois  had 
been  settled  in  some  few  localities  during  the 
French  period  of  domination,  and  the  popula 
tion  of  the  towns  of  Kaskaskia,  Prairie  du 
Rocher  and  Cahokia  were  predominantly 
French,  being  composed  of  a  few  native  born 
French,  but  mostly  of  French  Canadians  and 
Creoles. 

Even  under  British  domination  (1763  to 
1783)  there  were  practically  no  English- 
speaking  people  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
places  mentioned  except  the  garrisons  in  the 
forts  at  those  points ;  and  after  the  conquering 
march  of  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark  and 
his  Virginians  in  1778  and  1779  the  English 
authority  ceased  altogether,  the  forces  form 
ing  the  garrisons  having  become  prisoners  in 
the  hands  of  the  Americans.  The  result  of  the 
stream  of  emigration  that  set  in  from  Ken 
tucky  and  the  States  farther  east,  after  the 
creation  of  the  Northwest  Territory  in  1787, 
was  that  in  a  few  years  the  Americans  out 
numbered  the  earlier  inhabitants. 

At  the  time  Fort  Dearborn  was  built  almost 
[90] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

the  entire  State  of  Illinois,  as  at  present  con 
stituted,  was  included  in  a  county  called  St. 
Clair  County.  It  was  not  until  long  after 
Illinois  had  become  a  State  in  the  Union  that 
county  government  began  to  be  effective  in 
any  way  in  the  affairs  of  the  little  community 
at  Chicago;  and  indeed,  it  did  not  matter  in 
the  least  to  the  inhabitants  what  the  name  of 
the  county  might  be  in  which  the  place  was 
situated.  It  is  quite  likely  that  no  one  there 
even  knew  that  he  was  living  within  the  limits 
of  St.  Clair  County,  which  in  any  case  was 
merely  a  geographical  expression  carrying  no 
exercise  of  jurisdiction  whatever. 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  President  of  the 
United  States  from  1801  to  1809;  in  the  latter 
year  he  was  succeeded  by  James  Madison,  who 
was  President  for  the  ensuing  eight  years. 


Ill 

The  Tragedy 


Ill 

THE  TRAGEDY 

THE  echoes  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  raging 
throughout  Europe  during  the  period  be 
fore  and  after  our  war  with  Great  Britain 
were  heard  even  in  this  far-away  region  of 
the  western  frontier.  England  and  her  con 
tinental  allies  were  engaged  in  a  gigantic 
struggle  with  France  under  Napoleon,  then 
at  the  height  of  his  power.  For  the  purpose 
of  crippling  her  adversary  England  issued,  in 
1807,  her  famous  Orders  in  Council,  which 
declared  that  the  vessels  of  neutral  nations 
were  liable  to  seizure  if  engaged  in  trade  with 
the  enemy.  Napoleon  retaliated  by  issuing 
the  equally  famous  Decrees  of  Berlin  and 
Milan,  which  declared  Great  Britain  to  be 
in  a  state  of  blockade,  and  that  all  vessels 
bound  to  or  from  British  ports  were  liable  to 
capture. 

To  enforce  the  Orders  in  Council  was  a 
[95] 


THE    STORY    OF 

comparatively  easy  task  for  the  English  navy, 
then  as  now  the  most  powerful  among  the 
nations;  and  in  consequence  the  ocean  com 
merce  of  the  Americans  suffered  severely,  for 
at  that  time  every  ocean  highway  was  thronged 
with  the  merchant  ships  of  the  United  States. 
The  interference  with  our  commerce  was 
greatly  aggravated  by  the  high-handed  action 
of  the  English  in  forcibly  taking  away  from 
our  ships  many  of  their  seamen  and  pressing 
them  into  the  service  of  the  English  navy. 
This  grievance  especially  became  so  exasper 
ating  that  the  war  spirit  of  the  American 
people  was  aroused  from  one  end  of  the  land 
to  the  other. 

But  the  protests  of  the  Americans,  though 
made  to  both  England  and  France,  were  dis 
regarded,  and  it  was  realized  that  war  could 
not  be  avoided  with  one  or  the  other  of  those 
nations.  Indeed,  the  proposal  was  frequently 
made  in  the  press  and  in  Congress  that  the 
country  ought  to  declare  war  against  both 
powers  in  view  of  the  outrages  suffered  by  our 
people.  "The  insolence  of  the  powerful  bel 
ligerents  toward  the  young  republic  of  the 
[96] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

United  States  was  hard  to  endure,"  says 
Larned,  though  "the  conduct  of  the  French 
Government  was  more  insulting,  if  possible, 
and  more  injurious,  than  that  of  Great 
Britain."  But  the  American  people,  still  in 
spired  by  the  feelings  inherited  from  the 
Revolutionary  strife,  seemed  more  incensed  at 
the  treatment  they  received  from  the  English 
than  from  the  French. 

The  sparse  settlements  of  the  West  and  the 
isolated  posts  on  the  frontier  were  confronted 
with  a  more  serious  and  imminent  menace  to 
their  safety  than  were  the  inhabitants  of  the 
older  portions  of  the  country  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  They  beheld  the  war  cloud  gather 
ing,  with  a  dreadful  apprehension  of  the  cer 
tainty  that  it  would  bring  upon  them  a 
sanguinary  conflict  with  the  savages  of  the 
wilderness. 

The  increasingly  hostile  relations  between 
the  Americans  and  the  Western  tribes,  extend 
ing  over  a  period  of  some  years  previous  to  the 
time  of  which  we  are  writing,  was  brought  to 
a  climax  through  the  disturbing  influence  of 
Tecumseh;  but  at  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  in 
[97] 


THE    STORY    OF 

the  fall  of  1811,  where  the  savages  met  with 
disastrous  defeat,  it  was  thought  that  at  length 
an  era  of  peace  on  the  frontier  was  about  to 
follow.  And  this,  no  doubt,  would  have  been 
the  case  had  it  not  been  for  the  activity  of 
British  agents  along  the  Canada  border. 

It  soon  became  manifest  that  Indian  hos 
tility  was  once  more  increasing,  and  it  was 
generally  regarded  as  due  to  the  machinations 
of  the  British  at  Maiden  in  Canada,  where 
they  gave  welcome  and  shelter  to  the  discon 
tented  chiefs  and  their  followers  who  sought 
their  protection.  Forays  and  attacks,  sporadic 
expeditions  of  the  savages  for  purposes  of 
plunder  or  the  taking  of  the  scalps  of  set 
tlers,  were  continually  reported  throughout 
the  years  1811  and  1812.  One  of  the  causes 
of  war  recited  by  President  Madison  in  his 
message  to  Congress  just  previous  to  the 
declaration  of  war  against  England  was  the 
attacks  of  the  savages  upon  the  frontier  settle 
ments  incited  by  British  traders,  "  a  warfare," 
said  the  President,  "  which  is  known  to  spare 
neither  age  nor  sex,  and  distinguished  by  fea 
tures  peculiarly  shocking  to  humanity." 
[98] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

When  at  length  the  Indian  tribes  became 
assured  that  war  between  the  English  and  the 
Americans  was  about  to  follow,  it  was  readily 
seen  that  they  would  act  for  their  own  inter 
ests,  and  that  they  would  be  found  opposed  to 
the  Americans.  The  sympathies  of  the  tribes 
were  plainly  with  the  English  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  the  latter  were  more  liberal  in  mak 
ing  presents  to  them  than  the  Americans  were. 
Every  year  the  Indians  gathered  at  Maiden, 
opposite  Detroit,  to  receive  presents  both  use 
ful  and  ornamental.  Besides  blankets  and  pro 
visions,  a  large  quantity  of  objects  suitable  for 
the  adornment  of  their  persons  were  distrib 
uted  among  them  for  the  purpose,  as  it  was 
alleged,  of  "  stimulating  trade.7' 

Thus  the  Western  Indians  passed  by  the 
American  trading  posts  at  Chicago,  St.  Jo 
seph  and  other  stations,  and  traveled  over  the 
old  Sauk  Trail,  which  extended  from  the  Mis 
sissippi  at  Rock  Island  around  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  loaded  with  furs, 
which  they  sold  to  the  English  traders  at 
Maiden.  In  addition  to  the  goods  received  in 
barter  by  them,  they  were  shown  many  favors 

[99] 


THE    STORY    OF 

by  the  English  Government  officials,  and  the 
friendship  thus  cultivated  proved  of  immense 
value  to  the  English  when  war  broke  out.  In 
that  war  the  Indians  were  generally  found 
righting  on  the  side  of  their  English  friends. 

Another  cause  of  the  hostility  shown  by  the 
Indians  toward  the  Americans  was  the  con 
stant  irritation  created  in  their  minds  after 
treaties  had  been  concluded.  These  treaties, 
though  formally  agreed  to  by  the  chiefs  rep 
resenting  their  tribes,  were  often  regarded  by 
the  Indians  as  without  validity  for  one  reason 
or  another.  Indeed,  the  Indians  were  not 
without  grievances  against  the  Americans, 
some  real  and  others  conjured  up  and  dis 
torted  by  wrong-headed  leaders  among  them. 

Added  to  this  was  the  difficulty  of  restrain 
ing  the  squatter  and  the  bushranger,  who  de 
fied  all  treaties,  trampled  upon  the  rights  of 
the  Indians,  and  disregarded  the  treaty  obli 
gations  of  the  Government.  The  frontiersman 
had  scant  consideration  for  the  red  man,  whom 
he  looked  upon  as  his  natural  enemy  and  the 
principal  obstacle  to  his  safety  and  well-being. 
This  feeling  constituted  a  natural  antagonism 
[100] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 


which  was  not  allayed  until  the  final  removal 
of  all  the  tribes  to  Government  reservations 
many  years  later. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  1812  the  officers 
on  duty  at  Fort  Dearborn  were  Captain 
Nathan  Heald,  the  commanding  officer; 
Lieutenant  Linai  T.  Helm,  Ensign  George 
Ronan  and  Surgeon  Isaac  van  Voorhis. 
Captain  Heald  was  at  that  time  thirty-seven 
years  old  and  the  other  three  officers  were  all 
well  under  thirty;  Ronan  was  the  youngest  of 
them  all,  having  graduated  from  West  Point 
only  the  year  before. 

The  force  composing  the  garrison  consisted, 
according  to  Captain  Heald's  own  account 
written  a  couple  of  months  afterward,  of  sixty- 
six  enlisted  men,  fifty-four  of  whom  were 
regulars,  and  twelve  militia.  In  addition  to 
these  there  were  nine  women  and  eighteen 
children.  This  makes  a  total,  including  the 
officers,  of  ninety-seven  persons.  Some  ac 
counts,  however,  give  a  different  enumeration, 
but  we  shall  make  no  attempt  to  reconcile 
them,  as  the  variations  are  not  many. 

The  news  that  the  United  States  had  de- 
[101] 


THE    STORY    OF 

clared  war  against  Great  Britain  was  received 
at  Fort  Dearborn  on  the  seventh  day  of 
August,  1812.  This  was  fifty  days  afterwards, 
and  it  had  taken  this  long  time  for  the  news 
to  reach  the  remote  post  on  the  frontier.  The 
authorities  at  Detroit,  however,  had  been  in 
formed  some  three  or  four  weeks  before  the 
messenger  was  finally  despatched  to  Fort  Dear 
born.  If  word  had  been  sent  as  soon  as  re 
ceived  at  Detroit,  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  timely  measures  might  have  been  taken 
to  prevent  the  terrible  disaster  which  followed. 
The  despatches  containing  this  important  an 
nouncement  were  brought  by  a  chief  of  the 
Potawatami  tribe  named  Winnemeg,  also 
called  Winamac,  who  was  friendly  to  the 
Americans  and  sent  by  General  Hull  to  Cap 
tain  Heald. 

General  William  Hull,  then  in  command 
of  the  Northwestern  army  assembled  at  De 
troit,  had  served  with  distinction  in  the  Revo 
lutionary  War,  and  had  rendered  excellent 
service  as  Governor  of  the  Territory  during 
the  previous  seven  years.  Until  he  sur 
rendered  Detroit  he  was  held  in  high  esteem 
[  102] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

and  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  adminis 
tration. 

A  letter  of  instructions  to  Captain  Heaid 
from  General  Hull  was  the  most  important 
among  the  despatches  brought  by  the  messen 
ger.  This  letter  gave  specific  directions  to  the 
officer  commanding  at  Fort  Dearborn,  and 
was  as  follows: 

It  is  with  regret  I  order  the  evacuation  of  your  post, 
owing  to  the  want  of  provisions  only,  a  rteglect  of  the 
Commandant  of  Detroit.  You  will  therefore  destroy 

all  M^M&]£W^1^ 
tory  you  may  give  tx>APTAIK'H^AilK^^ns  wb 
desirous  ^s^^^^i^^^  Mlyk^^^^  to 
the  poor  and  needy  of  your  post.    I  am  informed  this 
day  that  Mackinac  and  the  Island  of  St.  Joseph's  [in 
the  St.  Mary's  River]  will  be  evacuated  on  account  of 
the  scarcity  of  provisions,  and  I  hope  in  my  next  to 
give  you  an  account  of  the  surrender  of  the  British  at 
Maiden,  as  I  expect  600  men  here  by  the  beginning  of 
Sept.  [Signed]     BRIGADIER  GEN,  HULL. 

The  letter,  the  original  of  which  is  pre 
served  in  the  Draper  collection  of  manu 
scripts  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  bears  the  marks 
of  having  been  hastily  written.  Evidently 
Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie,  when  she  wrote  the 
first  published  accounts  of  the  events  here  nar- 
[103] 


. 


**>•*#: 

>f..  ^:f-''  I/ 

-#&£*-  i- 

" 


OT  JJ^if ,  J4Jia,]%c 
,.  ,c~ 

«»rfSr>Ai  "  v&  • 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

and  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  adminis 
tration. 

A  letter  of  instructions  to  Captain  Heald 
from  General  Hull  was  the  most  important 
among  the  despatches  brought  by  the  messen 
ger.  This  letter  gave  specific  directions  to  the 
officer  commanding  at  Fort  Dearborn,  and 
was  as  follows: 

It  is  with  regret  I  order  the  evacuation  of  your  post, 
owing  to  the  want  of  provisions  only,  a  neglect  of  the 
Commandant  of  Detroit.  You  will  therefore  destroy 
all  arms  and  ammunition;  but  the  goods  of  the  Fac 
tory  you  may  give  to  the  friendly  Indians  who  may  be 
desirous  of  escorting  you  on  to  Fort  Wayne,  and  to 
the  poor  and  needy  of  your  post.  I  am  informed  this 
day  that  Mackinac  and  the  Island  of  St.  Joseph's  [in 
the  St.  Mary's  River]  will  be  evacuated  on  account  of 
the  scarcity  of  provisions,  and  I  hope  in  my  next  to 
give  you  an  account  of  the  surrender  of  the  British  at 
Maiden,  as  I  expect  600  men  here  by  the  beginning  of 
Sept.  [Signed]  BRIGADIER  GEN.  HULL. 

The  letter,  the  original  of  which  is  pre 
served  in  the  Draper  collection  of  manu 
scripts  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  bears  the  marks 
of  having  been  hastily  written.  Evidently 
Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie,  when  she  wrote  the 
first  published  accounts  of  the  events  here  nar- 
[103] 


THE    STORY    OF 

rated,  had  never  seen  the  letter  in  which  is 
contained  the  order  to  evacuate.  In  her  work 
entitled  Wau-Bun  she  says  that  the  order  re 
ceived  by  Captain  Heald  from  General  Hull 
was  "to  evacuate  the  fort,  if  practicable;  and 
in  that  event,  to  distribute  all  the  United 
States  property  contained  in  the  fort  and  in  the 
United  States'  Factory  or  agency  among  the 
Indians  in  the  neighborhood." 

Mrs.  Kinzie's  account  of  the  order  was 
doubtless  gathered  from  those  who  were  par 
ticipants  in  the  affairs  of  that  time  and  who 
gave  the  contents  of  General  Hull's  letter  from 
memory.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  author  of  Wau-Bun,  in  which  was  printed 
the  first  authentic  account  of  these  events,  was 
not  a  participant  in  them.  She  was  the  wife 
of  John  H.  Kinzie,  the  son  of  John  Kinzie  the 
pioneer  of  1804,  and  she  did  not  come  to  Chi 
cago  until  1833,  twenty-one  years  after  the 
occurrences  of  which  we  are  writing. 

The  original  letter  has  come  to  light  only 

within  the  last  few  years;  and  upon  making 

a  comparison  with  the  Wau-Bun  account  it  is 

seen  that  General  Hull  ordered  the  evacua- 

[104] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

tion,  without  leaving  anything  whatever  to  the 
discretion  of  the  officer  to  whom  the  order  is 
addressed,  though  discretionary  permission  is 
implied  by  the  conditional  clause  "  if  prac 
ticable"  in  the  Wau-Bun  account.  Just  how 
far  Captain  Heald  would  have  been  justified 
in  using  his  discretion  and  disregarding  the 
order  to  evacuate  in  view  of  the  great  danger 
there  was  in  obeying  it,  is  a  question  upon 
which  there  were  opposing  views  then,  and 
regarding  which  there  has  since  been  much 
controversy.  It  is  plain,  however,  that  a  strict 
construction  of  the  order  would  have  required 
that  the  post  be  evacuated,  no  matter  how  seri 
ous  the  consequences  of  doing  so  might  be; 
and  judging  from  what  we  know  of  Captain 
Heald's  character,  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that 
he  interpreted  his  orders  literally. 

The  difficulties  with  which  Captain  Heald 
was  encompassed  can  be  but  dimly  realized. 
Far  removed,  as  he  was,  from  the  nearest 
post;  surrounded  by  hordes  of  savages  who, 
though  professing  friendship,  were  without 
doubt  in  sympathy  with  the  enemy,  he  well 
knew  that  whatever  course  he  might  adopt 
[105] 


THE    STORY    OF 

would  endanger  the  safety  of  the  people  under 
his  care.  His  orders  to  evacuate  were  indeed 
positive;  but  if  he  could  have  been  assured 
of  safety  by  remaining  and  holding  the  post, 
he  would  have  been  justified  without  doubt 
in  doing  so;  and  it  was  the  unanimous  opin 
ion  of  his  advisers,  including  the  officers  of 
the  garrison,  that  this  should  be  done. 

Captain  Heald's  problem,  however,  was  a 
military  one;  he  believed  in  obeying  orders, 
on  the  theory  that  his  superiors  issued  them 
as  a  part  of  a  comprehensive  plan.  If  he 
should  remain  at  the  post  in  defiance  of  his 
plain  instructions  he  might  embarrass  a  well- 
planned  campaign  and  invite  disaster  in  a 
larger  field  than  he  could  be  aware  of.  Thus, 
he  decided  (for  though  slow  in  his  judgments, 
he  was  a  man  of  much  decision  of  character) 
that  the  evacuation  must  be  made,  and  the 
many  appalling  risks  of  a  retreat  through  the 
wilderness  must  be  hazarded. 

After  his  arrival  with  the  despatches,  the 
friendly  Winnemeg  sought  out  and  conferred 
with  John  Kinzie,  in  whom  the  Indians  gen 
erally  placed  much  confidence.  Kinzie  was 
'[106] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

widely  known  as  "the  Indians'  friend,"  and 
the  regard  felt  by  the  savages  of  the  neigh 
borhood  toward  him  and  his  family  had  here 
tofore  been  a  powerful  influence  in  protect 
ing  the  post  from  their  attacks.  As  it  was, 
many  of  the  young  men  of  the  tribes  could 
scarcely  be  restrained  in  their  desire  to  in 
augurate  hostilities  in  spite  of  their  older  men, 
who  not  only  entertained  a  high  regard  for 
Kinzie  and  his  family,  but  who  also  realized 
that  the  friendship  of  the  Americans  was  of 
more  value  to  them  than  that  of  the  British. 
Mr.  Kinzie  had  taken  up  his  residence  at 
the  fort  and  was  soon  in  possession  of  all  the 
material  facts  contained  in  Winnemeg's  des 
patches.  Winnemeg,  well  knowing  the  tem 
per  of  the  tribes,  advised  Mr.  Kinzie  that  it 
would  be  dangerous  to  evacuate  the  post  and 
attempt  to  pass  through  a  country  infested 
with  hostile  Indians.  The  garrison,  he  said, 
was  well  supplied  with  provisions  and  means 
of  defence,  and  the  post  could  withstand  a 
siege  until  reinforcements  arrived.  But 
should  Captain  Heald  decide  upon  abandon 
ing  the  post  according  to  his  instructions,  it 
[107] 


THE    STORY    OF 

ought  to  be  done  immediately  by  all  means,  be 
fore  the  tribes  had  become  aware  of  the  actual 
condition  of  affairs. 

All  this  was  promptly  communicated  to  the 
commandant,  but  it  had  little  effect  upon  him, 
and  he  expressed  his  determination  to  carry 
out  his  instructions  to  the  letter,  distribute  the 
supplies  to  the  friendly  Indians,  and  evacuate 
the  post.  Mr.  Kinzie  strongly  reinforced  the 
advice  given  by  Winnemeg,  but  without  effect, 
and  on  the  following  morning  the  order 
received  from  General  Hull  was  read  to  the 
troops  on  parade. 

Five  days  after  the  receipt  of  General 
Hull's  order  Captain  Heald  called  a  council 
of  the  Indians,  who  were  then  assembled  in 
considerable  numbers  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
fort,  to  acquaint  them  with  his  intentions  and 
request  of  them  an  escort  for  the  garrison  on 
its  march  to  Fort  Wayne. 

Rumors  of  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  fort  had 
already  been  spread  among  the  Indians,  and 
there  were  evidences  of  considerable  excite 
ment  in  their  actions  and  conduct.  Some  of 
the  savages  entered  the  fort  in  defiance  of  the 
[108] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

guards  and  making  their  way  to  the  officers' 
quarters  strode  rudely  around  the  living 
apartments.  On  one  occasion  an  Indian  went 
into  the  parlor  of  the  commanding  officer  and, 
seizing  a  rifle,  fired  it,  as  an  expression  of  de 
fiance —  so  it  was  thought,  though  some  be 
lieved  it  was  the  signal  for  an  attack.  "The 
old  chiefs  passed  backwards  and  forwards 
among  the  assembled  groups,"  says  the  Wau- 
Bun  account,  "with  the  appearance  of  the 
most  lively  agitation,  while  the  squaws  rushed 
to  and  fro  in  great  excitement,  and  evidently 
prepared  for  some  fearful  scene." 

Notwithstanding  these  demonstrations,  the 
commanding  officer,  in  a  perhaps  mistaken 
endeavor  to  avoid  any  appearance  of  fear  or 
hesitation,  attended  the  council  which  he  had 
called,  though  warned  against  doing  so.  This 
council  was  held  on  the  esplanade  adjoining 
the  fort.  He  was  accompanied  only  by  Mr. 
Kinzie,  the  officers  declining  to  participate. 
The  officers  had  been  secretly  informed,  they 
asserted,  that  the  young  men  of  the  tribes  in 
tended  to  fall  upon  them  when  they  attended 
the  council  and  treacherously  murder  them, 
[109] 


THE    STORY    OF 

but  Captain  Heald  was  not  convinced  that 
there  was  any  truth  in  the  information. 

After  the  two  passed  out  of  the  fort  gates, 
the  portholes  of  the  blockhouses  were  opened 
and  the  cannons  were  pointed  so  as  to  com 
mand  the  whole  assembly.  This  precaution 
no  doubt  saved  the  lives  of  the  two  white  men 
who  attended  the  council.  Captain  Heald  in 
formed  the  assembled  Indians  that  he  pro 
posed  to  evacuate  the  fort,  but  before  doing 
so  it  was  his  intention  "  to  distribute  among 
them,  the  next  day,  not  only  the  goods  lodged 
in  the  United  States'  Factory,  but  also  the  am 
munition  and  provisions,  with  which  the  gar 
rison  was  well  supplied." 

Following  this  statement  he  asked  the  Pota- 
watamis  to  furnish  him  an  escort  for  his  troops 
on  their  march  to  Fort  Wayne,  promising  that 
a  liberal  reward  would  be  paid  to  them  on 
their  arrival,  in  addition  to  the  presents  he 
was  then  about  to  distribute.  This  proposal, 
apparently,  was  well  received,  and,  "with 
many  professions  of  friendship  and  good  will, 
the  savages  assented  to  all  he  proposed,  and 
promised  all  he  required." 
[no] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

But  Mr.  Kinzie,  well  knowing  the  disposi 
tion  of  the  Indians,  did  not  place  reliance 
upon  the  assurance  they  had  given.  After  the 
council  he  had  an  interview  with  Captain 
Heald  and  earnestly  tried  to  convince  him  of 
the  utter  worthlessness  of  the  promises  made 
by  the  Indians.  He  reminded  him  of  the 
many  instances  of  hostility  shown  by  them 
during  the  past  year,  especially  by  the  Wabash 
Indians,  with  whom  the  Potawatamis  were 
closely  associated;  and  that  it  had  become  the 
settled  policy  of  the  Americans  to  withhold 
from  the  savages  whatever  would  aid  them 
in  carrying  on  warfare  against  the  scattered 
white  inhabitants  of  the  frontier;  and  that 
the  distributions  he  was  now  making  would 
directly  assist  them  in  their  bloody  purposes. 

Owing  to  the  representations  thus  made, 
Captain  Heald  at  length  became  convinced 
that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  place  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  might  at  any  moment  be 
come  enemies  the  ammunition  he  had  intended 
giving  to  them,  and  he  determined  to  destroy 
all  except  what  was  necessary  for  the  use  of 
his  own  troops. 

[in] 


THE    STORY    OF 

A  letter  written  by  Lieutenant  Helm  some 
two  years  afterwards  has  recently  come  to 
light.  In  this  letter  is  given  the  amount  of 
supplies  and  war  material  at  the  fort  when 
the  order  to  evacuate  was  received.  "We 
had,"  says  Helm,  "two  hundred  stand  of 
arms,  four  pieces  of  artillery,  six  thousand 
pounds  of  powder,  and  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  shot,  lead,  etc.  There  was  a  supply  of 
Indian  corn  and  provisions  to  last  three 
months,  exclusive  of  a  herd  of  two  hundred 
head  of  horned  cattle,  and  twenty-seven  bar 
rels  of  salt." 

The  next  day  after  the  council  was  held,  the 
thirteenth,  there  was  a  general  distribution  of 
blankets,  broadcloths,  calicoes,  paints,  etc,, 
among  the  Indians  of  the  neighborhood;  but 
in  the  evening  the  ammunition  was  thrown 
into  a  well  and  the  liquors  emptied  into  the 
river.  The  Indians,  who  were  particularly 
eager  for  the  ammunition  and  the  liquors,  had 
observed  that  neither  of  these  articles  was 
forthcoming  in  the  distribution  of  the  day, 
and  under  cover  of  darkness  crept  as  near  to 
the  fort  as  possible  in  order  to  ascertain  if 
[112] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

any  attempt  was  being  made  to  destroy  them, 
as  they  strongly  suspected  there  would  be.  A 
guard  had  been  placed,  however,  so  that  the 
Indians  could  not  approach  close  to  the  scene. 
But  though  the  prowling  savages  may  not 
have  actually  witnessed  the  proceedings,  the 
work  of  destruction  was  accomplished.  The 
Indians  were  well  convinced  that  all  this  had 
been  done,  especially  as  the  river  was  so  im 
pregnated  with  the  liquors  that  its  waters  had 
the  taste  of  strong  grog  for  some  time  after 
ward.  All  the  weapons  of  warfare  not  neces 
sary  for  the  use  of  the  soldiers  were  broken 
up  and  thrown  into  the  well,  along  with  quan 
tities  of  powder,  shot,  flints  and  gunscrews. 

The  eight  days  intervening  between  the  ar 
rival  of  the  order  to  evacuate  the  fort  and  the 
actual  departure  of  the  garrison  were  filled 
with  forebodings  and  anxiety.  The  inmates  of 
the  fort,  which  now  included  not  only  the  gar 
rison  but  the  civilian  inhabitants  of  the  neigh 
borhood  as  well,  believed  that  an  appalling 
fate  —  death  at  the  hands  of  a  savage  foe  — 
inevitably  awaited  them.  The  one  exception 
was  Captain  Heald,  who  still  had  faith  that 
[113] 


THE    STORY    OF 

the  Indians  would  be  true  to  their  promise  and 
furnish  an  escort  on  the  "  march  through." 
He  was  convinced  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
creating  an  amicable  feeling  among  the  sav 
ages,  and  that  the  safely  of  all  was  assured. 
The  officers  of  the  garrison,  finding  that 
Captain  Heald  failed  to  call  a  council  with 
them  and  that  he  had  expressed  an  intention 
of  abandoning  the  fort  and  proceeding  to  Fort 
Wayne  with  an  Indian  escort,  drew  up  and 
presented  a  remonstrance  to  him  in  which  it 
was  recited  that  it  was  highly  improbable  that 
the  command  would  be  permitted  to  pass 
through  the  country  in  safety  to  Fort  Wayne. 
For  although  it  had  been  said  that  some  of 
the  chiefs  had  opposed  an  attack  upon  the 
fort,  planned  the  preceding  autumn,  yet  it  was 
well  known  that  they  had  been  actuated  in 
that  matter  by  motives  of  private  regard  to  one 
family,  that  of  Mr.  Kinzie,  and  not  to  any 
general  friendly  feeling  toward  the  Amer 
icans;  and  that  at  any  rate  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  these  few  individuals  would  be 
able  to  control  the  whole  tribe,  who  were 
thirsting  for  blood. 

[114] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

In  another  clause  of  the  remonstrance  it 
was  added  that  the  march  of  the  troops  must 
be  necessarily  slow,  as  their  movements  must 
be  accommodated  to  the  helplessness  of  the 
women  and  children,  of  whom  there  were  a 
number  with  the  detachment;  and  that  their 
unanimous  advice  was  to  remain  where  they 
were  and  fortify  themselves  as  strongly  as 
possible. 

The  reply  made  by  Captain  Heald  to  the 
remonstrance  was  that  his  force  was  totally  in 
adequate  to  an  engagement  with  the  Indians; 
—  that  is,  in  withstanding  a  siege;  —  that  he 
should  unquestionably  be  censured  for  re 
maining  when  there  appeared  a  prospect  of  a 
safe  march  through;  that,  upon  the  whole,  he 
deemed  it  expedient  to  assemble  the  Indians, 
distribute  the  property  among  them,  and  then 
ask  of  them  an  escort  to  Fort  Wayne,  with  the 
promise  of  a  considerable  reward  upon  their 
safe  arrival;  —  and  that  he  had  "full  confi 
dence  in  the  friendly  professions  of  the 
Indians." 

The  gathering  perils  that  now  environed 
the  fort  and  its  inmates  were  rapidly  ap- 
[115] 


THE    STORY    OF 

preaching  a  climax.  A  fatal  mistake  had  been 
made  in  disregarding  Winnemeg's  advice  to 
begin  the  retreat  without  delay  if  that  course 
was  determined  upon.  Winnemeg  had  ad 
vised  that  in  such  an  event  everything  about 
the  fort  should  be  left  standing  as  it  was, 
and  while  the  Indians  were  engaged  in  plun 
dering  the  abandoned  fort  the  troops  might 
be  well  on  their  way  to  Fort  Wayne,  and  per 
haps  escape  attack  altogether.  John  Kinzie 
likewise  strongly  urged  the  necessity  of 
prompt  action  if  the  movement  was  to  be 
made  at  all. 

The  officers  held  aloof  from  Captain  Heald 
after  the  distribution  of  the  supplies  had  taken 
place,  convinced  at  length  that  further  efforts 
to  dissuade  him  from  his  course  were  useless. 
They  denounced  his  purpose  as  "  little  short 
of  madness."  There  were  many  evidences  of 
insubordination  observed  among  the  soldiers, 
and  an  atmosphere  of  gloom  pervaded  the 
minds  of  all  in  the  fort. 

On  the  fourteenth,  the  day  before  that  de 
cided  upon  for  the  evacuation,  the  general 
despondency  was  relieved  by  the  arrival  of 
[116] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

Captain  William  Wells  from  Fort  Wayne 
at  the  head  of  a  band  of  about  thirty  friendly 
Indians  of  the  Miami  tribe  mounted  on 
ponies.  Captain  Wells  will  always  be  classed 
among  the  heroic  figures  of  the  time.  He 
was  then  in  the  prime  of  life,  a  man  about 
forty  years  of  age,  and  known  throughout  the 
frontier  as  a  "perfect  master  of  everything 
pertaining  to  Indian  life  both  in  peace  and 
war,  and  withal  a  stranger  to  personal  fear." 

When  General  Hull  had  sent  the  order  to 
Captain  Heald  to  evacuate  his  post,  he  also 
sent  an  express  to  Major  B.  F.  Stickney, 
Indian  agent  at  Fort  Wayne,  advising  him  of 
the  order  and  requesting  him  to  render  to  Cap 
tain  Heald  all  the  information  and  assistance 
in  his  power  to  give.  In  accordance  with  this 
request,  Major  Stickney  had  promptly  des 
patched  Captain  Wells  with  a  party  of  Miami 
warriors.  A  warm  attachment  existed  be 
tween  Wells  and  Heald,  and  upon  the  arrival 
of  Wells  with  his  Miamis  he  was  hailed  with 
joy,  and  the  hopes  of  the  people  at  the  fort 
were  revived. 

It  was  Wells's  intention  to  prevent  if  pos- 
[117] 


THE    STORY    OF 

sible  the  abandonment  of  the  fort,  aware  as  he 
was  of  the  hostility  of  the  Potawatamis,  for  he 
knew  that  certain  destruction  awaited  the  gar 
rison  if  it  should  make  the  attempt.  Possess 
ing  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  character  and 
disposition  of  the  Indians,  derived  from  his 
long  residence  among  them,  Wells  foresaw 
that  the  savages  would  take  quick  advantage 
of  the  whites  should  they  leave  the  shelter 
of  the  fort  walls  and  expose  themselves  in  the 
open  on  their  long  slow  march  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  to  Fort  Wayne. 

When  Wells  reached  the  fort  he  found  to 
his  dismay  that  most  of  the  ammunition  had 
been  destroyed,  and  that  the  provisions,  blan 
kets  and  other  goods  in  the  factory  had  been 
distributed  to  the  Indians.  He  perceived  at 
once  that  the  means  of  defence  having  been  so 
seriously  reduced  there  was  now  no  other 
course  to  pursue,  and  that  the  march  must  be 
attempted. 

During  the  day  another  council  with  the 

Indians  was  held,  and  on  this  occasion  the 

savages  were  found  to  be  in  an  angry  mood. 

They  immediately  reminded  the  commanding 

[118] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

officer  that  they  were  aware  of  the  destruction 
of  the  ammunition  and  the  liquors  and  that 
they  regarded  it  as  an  act  of  bad  faith.  It 
was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  the  chiefs 
could  restrain  the  young  men  of  the  tribe  from 
carrying  out  their  sanguinary  designs  at  once. 
For  although  there  were  several  of  the  chiefs 
who  shared  the  generally  hostile  feeling  of 
the  tribe  toward  the  whites,  yet  they  enter 
tained  a  regard  for  the  men  of  the  garrison 
and  the  traders  of  the  neighborhood. 

The  evening  of  the  last  day  at  the  fort, 
Black  Partridge,  a  prominent  chief  of  the 
Potawatamis,  of  whom  further  mention  will 
be  made,  came  to  the  officers'  quarters  and  ad 
dressed  Captain  Heald  as  follows:  "  Father, 
I  come  to  deliver  up  to  you  the  medal  I  wear. 
It  was  given  me  by  the  Americans,  and  I  have 
long  worn  it  in  token  of  our  mutual  friend 
ship.  But  our  young  men  are  resolved  to  im 
brue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  the  whites. 
I  cannot  restrain  them,  and  I  will  not  wear  a 
token  of  peace  while  I  am  compelled  to  act 
as  an  enemy." 

The  language  of  this  speech  cannot,  of 
[119] 


THE    STORY    OF 

course,  be  accepted  as  the  verbatim  utterance 
of  Black  Partridge.  He  spoke  in  his  own 
tongue,  and  the  speech  was  translated  by  the 
interpreter,  who  at  that  time  was  John  Kinzie. 
The  utterance  has,  however,  become  a  classic 
in  all  the  historical  accounts  pertaining  to  the 
events  of  that  time. 

An  observer  taking  a  survey  from  the  walls 
of  the  fort  at  this  time  would  have  beheld  the 
river  to  the  north  flowing  in  a  sluggish  cur 
rent  toward  the  lake,  then  bending  to  the  south 
until  it  reached  its  mouth  over  a  shallow  bot 
tom  nearly  opposite  the  present  Madison 
Street.  On  the  bank  of  the  river,  near  its 
mouth,  stood  the  house  of  Charles  Lee,  the 
owner  of  "  Lee's  Place,"  the  farm  some  four 
miles  up  the  South  Branch  where  two  men 
were  murdered  by  the  Indians  in  the  previous 
April.  Toward  the  west  was  the  Agency 
House,  standing  near  the  bank  of  the  river, 
beyond  which  were  the  groups  of  Indian 
wigwams  clustered  along  the  creek  that  for 
merly  flowed  into  the  main  stream  at  the 
present  State  Street.  Opposite  this  point,  on 
the  north  bank,  was  the  house  of  John  Burns; 
[  120] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

and  further  eastward  was  the  most  pretentious 
residence  of  the  place,  the  house  of  John  Kin- 
zie.  A  little  in  the  rear  of  it  stood  the  cabin 
of  Antoine  Ouilmette. 

Taking  a  more  distant  view  toward  the 
west,  the  observer  might  have  seen  the  point 
where  the  North  and  South  branches  of  the 
river  met  and  formed  the  main  body  of  the 
stream.  The  north  banks  of  the  river  were 
wooded  to  the  water's  edge  except  where 
clearings  had  been  made  around  the  cabins 
mentioned. 

Looking  eastward,  the  broad  expanse  of 
Lake  Michigan  stretched  away  beyond  the 
limits  of  vision.  At  the  season  of  year  in 
which  the  events  of  which  we  are  writing  took 
place  the  lake  was  usually  devoid  of  storms 
and  rough  weather. 

Lake  Michigan  at  this  point  has  a  breadth 
of  fifty  miles  between  the  mouth  of  the  Chi 
cago  River  and  the  opposite  or  Michigan 
shore;  and  there  being  no  eminence  of  suffi 
cient  height  to  rise  above  the  horizon,  the 
prospect  was  like  looking  off  to  sea  where 
there  is  an  offing  of  thousands  of  miles. 
[121] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Northward  the  shores  were  fringed  with  a 
white  oak  forest,  with  a  line  of  sand-hills  near 
the  beach.  Looking  southward,  the  shore  of 
the  lake  trended  away  in  a  curve  toward  the 
southeast,  and  on  its  margin  could  be  traced 
the  sand-hills  characteristic  of  the  shores  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  most  of  the 
details  of  the  Chicago  massacre  are  derived 
from  the  accounts  furnished  by  the  two 
women  who  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  scenes 
described.  Neither  of  these  accounts  was 
directly  written  by  the  two  women  referred 
to,  but  are  preserved  through  secondary 
reports. 

The  narrative  of  Mrs.  Helm,  who  was  only 
seventeen  years  old  at  the  time,  was  taken 
down  from  dictation  apparently  by  Mrs.  John 
H.  Kinzie  and  incorporated  in  Wau-Bun. 
While  this  account,  as  given  in  the  work  men 
tioned,  is  enclosed  in  quotation-marks  as  if  in 
the  language  of  the  narrator,  it  was  evidently 
rendered  by  Mrs.  Kinzie  in  her  own  words. 
Mrs.  Kinzie  was  not  present  at  the  massacre, 
not  having  come  to  Chicago  until  twenty 
[122] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

years  thereafter,  but  she  was  diligent  in  pro 
curing  all  the  information  available  at  the 
time  of  writing  her  book.  In  her  later  years 
she  no  doubt  talked  the  matter  over  at  length 
with  Mrs.  Helm,  who  was  a  half-sister  of 
her  husband. 

It  is  important,  in  obtaining  a  clear  under 
standing  of  this  narrative,  that  the  names  of 
Mrs.  John  Kinzie,  the  wife  of  the  pioneer 
of  1804,  and  of  Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie,  the 
author,  be  not  confused. 

The  narrative  of  Mrs.  Heald  reaches  pos 
terity  through  the  story  of  her  son,  Darius 
Heald.  A  portion  was  given  in  John  Went- 
worth's  address  at  the  unveiling  of  the  memo 
rial  tablet  on  the  site  of  old  Fort  Dear 
born,  delivered  May  21,  1881;  and  another 
portion  is  quoted  in  Joseph  Kirkland's  book, 
The  Chicago  Massacre,  published  some  years 
later. 

Darius  Heald  was  not  born  until  ten  years 
after  the  massacre,  and  his  testimony,  written 
from  his  dictation,  was  derived  entirely  from 
the  oral  account  of  his  mother. 

Comparing  the  account  with  that  given  by 
[123] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Mrs.  Helm  a  number  of  discrepancies  in  de 
tails  is  observed,  though  the  main  events  are 
related  in  both  accounts  in  practically  identi 
cal  form. 

The  accounts  of  both  Mrs.  Helm  and  Mrs. 
Heald  were  written  from  dictation.  Mrs. 
Helm's  account  appeared  in  print  twenty-four 
years  after  the  event  which  it  describes,  while 
Mrs.  Heald's  did  not  appear  until  seventy- 
five  years  thereafter,  having  in  the  meantime 
been  preserved  only  in  the  form  of  a  family 
tradition.  It  can  therefore  hardly  have  as 
much  historical  value  as  the  older  published 
narrative  of  Mrs.  Helm. 

The  morning  of  the  fifteenth  of  August, 
1812,  dawned  clear  and  the  day  was  oppres 
sively  warm.  There  was  scarcely  a  breath  of 
air  stirring  and  the  surface  of  the  lake  was 
unruffled,  stretching  away,  as  one  expressed  it, 
"  like  a  sheet  of  burnished  gold."  The  prep 
arations  for  the  departure  went  actively  for 
ward.  At  nine  o'clock  Captain  Wells  took  a 
place  at  the  head  of  the  column  on  horseback, 
his  face  blackened,  according  to  the  Indian 
custom,  "in  token  of  his  impending  fate." 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

Wells  was  under  no  illusions.  He  knew  that 
at  any  moment  the  crisis  would  be  upon  them, 
and  he  clearly  realized  how  hopeless  in  the 
presence  of  hordes  of  savages  in  the  neighbor 
hood,  bent  on  blood  and  plunder,  any  resist 
ance  would  be,  and  how  faint  a  chance  there 
was  for  escape.  But  brave  and  resolute  he 
calmly  went  forward  with  the  fixed  purpose 
of  doing  his  duty  in  the  face  of  inevitable 
destruction. 

Following  him  rode  half  of  his  Miami 
band,  and  behind  them  the  musicians  came, 
and  as  the  march  began  they  played  the  Dead 
March.  Then  came  the  soldiers,  each  carry 
ing  twenty-five  rounds  of  ammunition,  all  that 
had  been  reserved  from  the  general  destruc 
tion,  though  a  totally  inadequate  supply  for 
such  a  campaign  as  they  might  reasonably 
look  forward  to  in  these  threatening  circum 
stances. 

Next  came  a  train  of  wagons  in  which  the 
camp  equipage  and  provisions  were  carried, 
and  in  the  wagons  were  also  placed  the 
women  and  children.  The  rear  of  the  column 
was  brought  up  by  the  remainder  of  the 
[125] 


THE    STORY    OF 

Miami  escort.  The  wives  of  the  married 
officers,  Mrs.  Heald  and  Mrs.  Helm,  accom 
panied  the  procession  on  horseback. 

The  escort  promised  by  the  Potawatamis 
in  council  was  on  hand  and  moved  with  the 
procession,  a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  west, 
keeping  a  parallel  course.  There  was  a 
lingering  hope  among  the  whites  that  the  In 
dians  would  be  true  to  their  promise  and 
continue  with  them  throughout  their  journey 
as  a  protecting  force,  and  in  this  hope  the 
movements  of  the  Indians  were  watched  with 
the  greatest  interest,  though  with  painful  fore 
bodings  and  suspicions. 

Among  the  people  thus  hoping  against  hope 
"  there  were  not  wanting  gallant  hearts  who 
strove  to  encourage  in  their  desponding  com 
panions  the  hopes  of  escape  they  were  far 
from  indulging  themselves." 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  day  of  the  de 
parture  of  the  garrison  John  Kinzie  had 
received  a  message  from  Topenebe  of  St. 
Joseph's  band  informing  him  of  what  he 
already  was  well  convinced  of,  that  the  Pota 
watamis  who  were  to  act  as  escort  on  the 
[126] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

march  had  treacherous  designs,  and  would 
without  doubt  attack  the  column.  Topenebe 
was  a  chief  in  the  Potawatami  tribe,  but  a 
firm  friend  of  the  whites  and  especially  of  the 
Kinzie  family.  He  warned  Mr.  Kinzie  not 
to  accompany  the  troops  when  they  left  the 
fort,  but  rather  to  take  passage  in  a  boat  with 
his  family  and  proceed  directly  to  St.  Joseph, 
where  he  might  rejoin  the  troops  if  they  were 
successful  in  passing  through  the  country. 

Mr.  Kinzie,  however,  decided  to  place  his 
family  in  the  boat,  while  he  himself  accom 
panied  the  troops,  in  the  hope  and  belief  that 
his  presence  would  operate  as  a  restraint 
upon  the  fury  of  the  savages  in  case  of  an 
attack.  This  brave  action  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Kinzie,  who  thus  cast  in  his  lot  with  those 
who  were  going  forth  to  almost  certain 
destruction,  must  be  regarded  as  an  exhibition 
of  rare  personal  courage  notable  even  among 
many  other  instances  of  a  similar  kind  seen 
on  that  fatal  day. 

The  party  in  the  boat  which  left  the  Kinzie 
house  about  the  same  time  that  the  troops 
marched  out  of  the  fort  consisted  of  Mrs.  Kin- 
[127] 


THE    STORY    OF 

zie  and  her  four  children,  the  eldest  of  whom 
by  her  second  marriage  was  John  Harris,  then 
nine  years  old.  The  others  were:  Ellen 
Marion,  six  and  a  half  years  old;  Maria 
Indiana,  four  years  old,  and  Robert  Allen, 
two  and  a  half  years  old.  In  addition  there 
were  Josette  La  Framboise,  a  French-Ottawa 
half-breed,  a  nurse  in  the  family;  Chandon- 
nais,  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Kinzie;  two 
servants,  a  boatman,  and  the  two  Indians  who 
had  brought  the  message  from  Topenebe. 
This  made  a  party  of  twelve  persons  in  the 
boat. 

Upon  Mrs.  Kinzie  now  devolved  the  re 
sponsibility  and  direction  of  the  party  in  the 
boat,  since  her  husband  had  chosen  to  accom 
pany  the  troops.  Proceeding  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  the  boat  was  detained  for  a  time 
while  the  party  beheld  the  passage  of  the  col 
umn  just  beginning  its  march.  Mrs.  Kinzie 
"was  a  woman  of  uncommon  energy  and 
strength  of  character,"  says  the  author  of 
Wau-Run,  "yet  her  heart  died  within  her  as 
she  folded  her  arms  around  her  helpless  in 
fants,  and  gazed  upon  the  march  of  her  hus- 
[128] 


OLD     FORT     DEARBORN 

band  and  eldest  child  to  certain  destruction." 
It  will  be  recalled  that  Mrs.  Kinzie's  eldest 
child  was  Mrs.  Margaret  Helm,  who  was 
with  her  husband  on  the  march. 

Antoine  Ouilmette  and  his  family  did  not 
abandon  their  dwelling  as  did  all  the  other 
residents  of  the  village.  A  sister  of  his  wife, 
known  in  the  accounts  as  Mrs.  Bisson,  was 
a  member  of  this  same  household.  Ouilmette 
was  regarded  by  the  Potawatamis  as  belong 
ing  to  their  tribe,  and  he  felt  no  apprehension 
of  danger  in  remaining  on  the  ground.  Rene 
gade  whites  living  among  the  savages  usually 
maintained  their  standing  among  them  by 
offering  no  opposition  to  any  atrocities  com 
mitted  by  them,  and  sometimes  even  partici 
pating  in  the  warfare  against  their  own  race. 

The  line  of  march  lay  along  the  shore  of 
the  lake  toward  the  south.  In  the  absence 
of  roads  through  the  country  at  that  early 
period  the  traveling  was  difficult  for  wagons, 
and  the  margin  of  the  lake  was  usually  pre 
ferred  for  that  kind  of  locomotion  wherever 
it  lay  in  the  desired  direction.  For  a  consider 
able  distance  toward  the  southern  end  of  the 
[129] 


THE    STORY    OF 

lake  the  route  of  the  proposed  march  would 
be  along  the  sandy  beach,  usually  firm  and 
smooth  near  the  water's  edge. 

Boat  navigation  was  the  main  reliance  for 
transporting  men  and  goods,  though  as  yet 
there  was  not  a  sufficiently  large  number  of 
boats  of  any  description  on  Lake  Michigan  to 
have  moved  so  large  a  body  of  men  and 
women  at  one  time  as  composed  the  proces 
sion  leaving  the  fort.  And  even  if  there  had 
been  enough  of  such  as  were  used  by  the 
traders,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  people  would 
have  been  permitted  by  the  hostile  Indians 
even  to  embark  in  them. 

The  fort  was  no  sooner  vacated  than  the 
Indians  rushed  in  and  began  to  plunder  the 
place  of  everything  that  was  movable.  In 
an  adjoining  field  there  had  been  a  herd  of 
cattle  kept  for  the  use  of  soldiers,  such  as 
milch  cows,  oxen,  etc.,  and  these  were  al 
lowed  to  run  at  large  when  the  troops 
departed.  The  Indians  gave  chase  and  shot 
them  all,  seemingly  for  the  satisfaction  they 
found  in  the  mere  act  of  killing,  and  the  deed 
was  quite  in  keeping  with  their  usual  im- 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

provident  habits.  Mrs.  Helm,  in  her  account, 
said  that  she  well  remembered  a  remark  of 
Ensign  Ronan  as  the  shooting  of  the  cattle 
went  on.  "  Such,'7  said  he,  "  is  to  be  our  fate, 
—  to  be  shot  down  like  beasts." 

In  taking  their  departure  from  the  fort 
there  was  little  in  the  conduct  of  the  savages 
to  indicate  the  hostility  which  was  so  soon 
to  manifest  itself.  Mrs.  Heald  gave  an  ac 
count  of  the  scene  many  years  later,  and  she 
said  in  her  narrative  that  "  the  fort  was  va 
cated  quietly,  not  a  cross  word  being  passed 
between  soldiers  and  Indians,  and  good-byes 
were  exchanged." 

In  fact,  it  was  generally  believed  that  those 
Indians  who  gathered  about  the  entrance  of 
the  fort,  prepared  to  rush  in  the  moment  the 
last  men  passed  out,  took  no  part  in  the  later 
events  of  the  day,  being  fully  occupied  in  their 
work  of  plundering  and  cattle-killing.  John 
Wentworth  in  one  of  his  lectures  on  the  sub 
ject  went  further,  and  declared  that  the 
Indians  who  had  lived  a  long  time  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  fort  were  friendly 
to  the  whites  and  "did  their  best  to  pacify 
[131] 


THE    STORY    OF 

the  numerous  warriors  who  flocked  here  from 
the  more  distant  hunting  grounds." 

The  column  had  not  proceeded  very  far 
on  its  course  before  it  was  noticed  that  the 
Potawatami  escort  was  diverging  from  the 
direction  in  which  both  columns  started  out 
and  that  at  the  distance  of  a  mile  from  the 
fort  there  was  a  considerable  distance  between 
them. 

A  range  of  sand-hills  and  sand-banks  of  no 
great  height  skirted  the  shore  dividing  the 
sandy  beach  from  the  prairie  beyond  them. 
Among  these  sand-hills  were  a  few  trees  and 
bushes  supporting  a  precarious  existence. 
Westward  of  this  range  of  sand-hills  which 
began  to  rise  about  a  mile  from  the  fort  the 
Indians  continued  their  course  and  were  soon 
lost  to  view. 

Suddenly,  far  in  the  advance,  Captain 
Wells  was  seen  to  turn  his  horse  and  ride 
furiously  back  along  the  marching  men,  who 
quickly  came  to  a  halt.  Wells  was  swinging 
his  hat  in  a  circle  around  his  head,  which 
meant  in  the  sign  language  of  the  frontier, 
"We  are  surrounded  by  Indians!"  As  he 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

approached  the  commanding  officer  he 
shouted,  "They  are  about  to  attack  us;  form 
instantly  and  charge  upon  them."  The  Pota- 
watami  escort  had  in  fact  become  the  attack 
ing  party,  choosing  to  murder  the  whites 
rather  than  join  in  looting  the  fort 

The  Indians  could  now  be  seen  in  great 
numbers  coming  into  view  from  "behind  the 
mounds  of  sand,  their  heads  bobbing  up  and 
down  "like  turtles  out  of  the  water."  The 
troops  were  promptly  formed  and  they  had 
no  sooner  taken  position  than  the  Indians  be 
gan  firing  upon  them  with  deadly  effect,  the 
first  victim  being  a  veteran  of  seventy  years 
of  age. 

After  firing  one  round  the  troops  charged 
up  the  slopes  of  the  sand-hills,  driving  the 
Indians  from  the  position.  However,  they 
scattered  in  both  directions  and  presently  be 
gan  to  envelop  the  flanks  of  the  line  according 
to  the  usual  practice  in  savage  warfare.  At 
this  juncture  the  mounted  Miamis  would 
have  been  of  the  greatest  service  in  prevent 
ing  such  a  manoeuvre,  but  they  had  all  fled 
across  the  prairie  after  the  first  shot  was  fired, 
[133] 


THE    STORY    OF 

quickly  disappeared  in  the  distance,  and  were 
seen  no  more. 

Captain  Heald,  in  a  letter  written  a  few 
weeks  after  the  event,  said : 

The  situation-  of  the  country  rendered  it  necessary 
for  us  to  take  the  beach,  with  the  lake  on  our  left,  and 
a  high  sand-bank  on  our  right,  at  about  one  hundred 
yards'  distance.  We  had  proceeded  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  Indians  were 
prepared  to  attack  us  from  behind  the  bank.  I  imme 
diately  marched  up  with  the  company  to  the  top  of  the 
bank  when  the  action  commenced;  after  firing  one 
round  we  charged,  and  the  Indians  gave  way  in  front 
and  joined  those  on  our  flanks. 

The  horses  upon  which  Mrs.  Heald  and 
Mrs.  Helm  were  riding  became  almost  un 
manageable  after  the  firing  had  begun.  The 
explosion  of  a  charge  in  an  old  flint  lock  mus 
ket  was  a  terrific  outburst  of  noise.  It 
produced  a  volume  of  sound  which  we  can 
scarcely  realize  wrhen  comparing  it  with  the 
report  of  a  service  rifle  in  use  at  the  present 
day.  It  was  little  wonder  that  the  horses 
pranced  and  bounded  when  these  thundering 
volleys  were  heard. 

Mrs.  Helm  said  that  she  drew  off  a  little 
[i34] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

and  gazing  upon  her  husband  (Lieutenant 
Helm)  and  her  father  (Mr.  Kinzie),  whom, 
although  he  was  her  step-father,  she  was  al 
ways  fond  of  calling  father,  she  saw  that  they 
both  were  yet  unharmed.  But  she  felt  that  as 
for  herself  her  hour  had  come,  and  she  en 
deavored  to  forget  those  she  loved,  and  to  pre 
pare  herself  for  her  approaching  fate. 

It  was  the  endeavor  of  the  savages  to  close 
upon  their  victims  whenever  they  found  an 
opportunity  to  bring  their  tomahawks  and 
scalping  knives  into  use.  While  some  were 
firing  upon  the  troops  from  cover,  others  were 
seeking  to  attack  those  who  had  become  sepa 
rated  from  their  friends.  These  they  could 
quickly  overcome  owing  to  their  skill  in  the 
use  of  those  murderous  weapons. 

One  Sergeant  Holt,  who  was  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  had  received  a  ball  in  his  neck 
in  the  early  part  of  the  engagement.  He 
handed  his  sword  to  his  wife,  who  was  on 
horseback  near  him,  and  told  her  to  defend 
herself.  The  Indians  were  desirous  of  ob 
taining  possession  of  the  horse  and  at  the  same 
time  sparing  her  life,  for  generally  they 
[135  I 


THE    STORY    OF 

wished  to  take  the  women  captives.  Mrs. 
Holt  resisted  vigorously  when  the  savages  at 
tempted  to  seize  the  horse;  she  broke  away 
from  them  and  dashed  out  on  the  open 
prairie.  Still  pursuing,  they  overtook  her 
and  succeeded  in  dragging  her  from  her 
horse.  She  was  then  made  a  prisoner  and 
later  taken  to  the  Illinois  River  country, 
where  she  received  kind  treatment.  Ulti 
mately  she  was  ransomed  and  restored  to  her 
friends. 

Mrs.  Helm  was  attacked  by  a  young  Indian, 
who  raised  his  tomahawk,  intending  to  deal 
her  a  blow,  but  she  avoided  the  murderous 
weapon  and  seized  her  assailant  around  the 
neck.  This  is  the  moment  that  the  sculptor 
of  the  bronze  group,  now  situated  at  the 
intersection  of  Eighteenth  Street  and  Calu 
met  Avenue,  chose  for  his  representation. 
Mrs.  Helm  tried  to  get  possession  of  the 
scalping  knife  which  hung  in  a  scabbard  over 
his  breast,  but  another  and  an  older  Indian 
dragged  her  away  with  a  strong  grasp. 
Struggling  and  resisting,  she  was  then  borne 
toward  the  lake,  plunged  into  the  water  and 
[136] 


.  v.  0 

n 


<\  <$M  is>  iV 
•hoVuf  $s^  \o  ^n^^ 
rv    io  j\\ft«iVi  a'ss\  ^i« 

1  '• 


THK    STORY    OF 

wished  to  take  the  women  captives.  Mrs. 
Holt  resisted  vigorously  when  the  savages  at 
tempted  to  seize  the  horse;  she  broke  away 
from  them  arid  dashed  out  on  the  open 
prairie.  Still  pursuing,  they  overtook  her 
and  succeeded  in  dragging  her  from  her 
horse.  She  was  'then  made  a  prisoner  and 
later  taken  to  the  Illinois  River  country, 

where  i8bCrn(£CCixcd   kind   treatment.     Ulti- 

O  THE 


,«?5a»»»fwr«%a?«F= 

iMtfkMKftgigugg 

LflA^7        ~.s,  *    1        _*•*_     A  —       _'  L/''» 


intersection  of  Eighteenth  Street  and  Calu 
met  Avenue,  chose  for  his  representation. 
Mrs,  Helm  tried  to  get  possession  of  the 
<4  knife  which  hung  in  a  scabbard  over 
hi«  breast,  but  another  and  an  older  Indian 

Struggling  and  resisting,  she  was  then  borne 
toward  the  lake,  plunged  into  the  water  and 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

firmly  held,  as  if  it  were  the  intention  to 
drown  her.  She  soon  perceived,  however, 
that  the  object  of  her  captor  was  not  to  drown 
her,  as  he  held  her  in  such  a  position  as  to 
keep  her  head  above  water.  She  began  to 
gather  courage,  and  looking  the  savage  full  in 
the  face,  she  saw  at  once,  notwithstanding  the 
paint  with  which  he  had  disguised  himself, 
that  it  was  Black  Partridge,  the  chief  who 
had  surrendered  his  medal  to  the  commandant 
the  evening  before. 

When  the  firing  was  nearly  over,  the  chief 
brought  her  out  of  the  water  and  placed  her 
on  a  sand-bank.  "  It  was  a  burning  August 
morning,"  she  said,  "  and  walking  through 
the  sand  in  my  drenched  condition  was  inex 
pressibly  painful  and  fatiguing.  I  stooped 
and  took  off  my  shoes  to  free  them  from  the 
sand  with  which  they  were  nearly  filled, 
when  a  squaw  seized  them  and  carried  them 
off,  and  I  was  obliged  to  proceed  without 
them." 

As  she  gained  the  prairie  she  was  met  by 
Mr.  Kinzie,  who  informed  her  that  her  hus 
band  (Lieutenant  Helm)  was  safe,  and  but 


THE    STORY    OF 

slightly  wounded.  She  was  led  back  to  the 
Indian  encampment  on  the  banks  of  the  Chi 
cago  River.  "  At  one  time,"  she  continues  in 
her  story,  "  I  was  placed  upon  a  horse  without 
a  saddle,  but  finding  the  motion  insupportable, 
I  sprang  off.  Supported  partly  by  my  kind 
conductor,  Black  Partridge,  and  partly  by 
another  Indian,  Pee-so-tum,  who  held  dan 
gling  in  his  hand  a  scalp,  which  by  the  black 
ribbon  around  the  queue  I  recognized  as  that 
of  Captain  Wells,  I  dragged  my  fainting  steps 
to  one  of  the  wigwams." 

Arrived  at  the  entrance  of  a  chief's  wig 
wam,  the  wife  of  the  chief,  inspired  by  a 
sentiment  of  pity  for  her,  an  exhibition  of 
feeling  rare  among  Indian  women,  seeing  her 
exhausted  condition,  took  a  kettle  and,  dip 
ping  up  some  water  from  the  small  creek  near 
by,  threw  in  a  quantity  of  maple  sugar,  and, 
stirring  it  with  her  hand,  gave  the  mixture 
to  her  to  drink.  She  was  greatly  refreshed 
by  the  draught.  This  act  of  kindness  touched 
the  poor  young  woman  deeply,  occurring  as  it 
did  in  the  midst  of  so  many  horrors. 

In  the  meantime  the  men  in  the  ranks  fell 
[138] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

rapidly  under  the  withering  fire  of  their  sav 
age  foes,  who  were  now  on  all  sides  of  them 
in  overwhelming  numbers.  Still  they  con 
tinued  the  struggle  bravely,  and  the  prairie 
was  soon  thickly  scattered  with  dead  and 
wounded.  Captain  Heald  himself  received  a 
wound  in  his  hip,  from  which  he  suffered  for 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  and  which  caused 
his  death  some  years  later.  It  may  be  stated 
in  passing  that  the  bodies  of  those  who  were 
killed  in  this  bloody  combat  lay  exposed  to 
the  elements  and  wild  beasts  for  four  years, 
until  eventually  their  remains  were  gathered 
up  and  buried  by  United  States  soldiers 
arriving  to  rebuild  the  fort. 

The  troops  behaved  most  gallantly  while 
the  battle  lasted  and  seemed  determined  to 
make  as  brave  a  defence  as  possible.  They 
were  soon  reduced  to  about  one-half  of  their 
original  number.  After  the  action  had  con 
tinued  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  Captain 
Heald  drew  off  the  few  men  still  remaining 
and  took  possession  of  a  small  elevation  in 
the  open  prairie,  beyond  the  range  of  the 
shots  coming  from  the  sand-hills  which  the 


THE    STORY    OF 

Indians  now  held,  thus  having  reversed  the 
positions  which  the  opposing  forces  occupied 
at  the  beginning  of  the  battle. 

There  was  nothing  now  to  prevent  the  sav 
ages  from  attacking  the  wagons  containing  the 
women  and  children.  The  troops  were  iso 
lated  on  the  prairie  and  could  not  even  defend 
themselves,  much  less  could  they  do  anything 
to  protect  the  helpless  people  in  the  wagons. 

Meantime  Captain  Wells  was  fighting, 
Indian  fashion,  and  doing  more  execution 
than  any  other  man  on  the  field.  Mounted 
on  horseback,  he  freely  exposed  himself  wher 
ever  the  combat  was  most  furious.  He  was 
armed  with  a  rifle  and  carried  two  pistols. 
His  powder  and  bullets  were  carried  in  belts 
slung  over  his  shoulders,  convenient  for  instant 
use.  He  usually  had  the  bullet  needed  for 
the  next  load  ready  in  his  mouth.  "  He  would 
pour  in  the  powder,"  said  an  eye-witness, 
"wad  it  down,  blow  in  the  bullet,  prime,  and 
fire,  more  rapidly  than  one  can  tell  the  facts." 

The  savages  had  a  wholesome  fear  of  Wells, 
and  they  fled  from  his  aim  in  all  directions. 
They  broke  from  him  right  and  left.  In  the 
[140] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

effort  to  protect  the  women  and  children  he 
closely  watched  the  movements  of  the  Indians 
toward  the  wagons,  and  presently  saw  a  young 
savage  come  up  and  enter  one  of  them  in 
which  twelve  of  the  children  had  been  col 
lected.  Before  he  could  prevent  him,  the  sav 
age  ruthlessly  tomahawked  the  entire  group ; 
and  when  Wells  caught  sight  of  this  horrid 
deed,  he  shouted  in  rage:  "  Is  that  their  game 
—  butchering  women  and  children?" 

But  his  own  end  was  near.  He  received  a 
shot  which  passed  through  his  lungs,  and  real 
izing  that  it  was  a  mortal  wound,  he  rode  up 
to  his  niece,  Mrs.  Heald,  still  maintaining  his 
position  upon  his  horse.  Seizing  her  hand, 
he  exclaimed,  "  Farewell,  my  child."  Mrs. 
Heald,  who,  though  thus  addressed,  was 
nearly  as  old  as  her  uncle,  replied,  "Why, 
uncle,  I  hope  you  will  get  over  this."  "  No, 
my  child,"  he  said,  "  I  cannot."  She  then 
saw  that  blood  was  coming  from  his  nose  and 
mouth,  and  he  said  that  he  could  not  last  five 
minutes  longer.  He  then  gave  his  niece  his 
last  message  in  these  words:  "Tell  my  wife, 
if  you  live  to  get  there,  —  but  I  think  it  doubt- 
[141] 


THE    STORY    OF 

ful  if  a  single  one  gets  there,  —  tell  her  I  died 
at  my  post  doing  the  best  I  could.  There  are 
seven  red  devils  over  there  that  I  have  killed." 

Wells's  horse  had  already  been  shot  through 
the  body,  and  at  that  moment  fell  exhausted, 
with  his  rider  pinioned  beneath  him.  Wells 
then  saw  several  Indians  coming  toward  him, 
bent  on  taking  advantage  of  his  apparent  help 
lessness.  He  summoned  his  failing  strength 
and  from  his  prostrate  position  took  aim  and 
killed  one  of  them  on  the  spot.  The  others 
approached  closer  to  the  wounded  lion,  deter 
mined  to  strike  a  blow  or  fire  a  shot  that  would 
instantly  end  his  life.  Mrs.  Heald  saw  the 
movement  and  cried  out,  "  Uncle,  there  is  an 
Indian  pointing  right  at  the  back  of  your 
head."  He  put  his  hand  back  and  held  up 
his  head,  in  spite  of  his  failing  strength,  so 
that  better  aim  might  be  taken,  and  then 
exclaimed,  "  Shoot  away!" 

The  Indian  fired  and  Captain  Wells  fell 
dead.  Thus  perished  the  man  to  whom  in  a 
greater  degree  than  to  any  other  person  those 
who  still  remained  alive  upon  the  scene 
looked  for  help  and  guidance  in  this  awful 
[142] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

extremity.  Without  him,  the  thickening 
perils  of  the  hour  seemed  the  climax  of 
despair. 

Some  time  later  the  news  of  the  death  of 
Captain  Wells  reached  his  widow  (the 
daughter  of  the  chief  Little  Turtle),  long 
before  Mrs.  Heald,  who  survived  the  mas 
sacre,  was  able  to  convey  the  message  entrusted 
to  her.  One  of  the  Indians  present  who  wit 
nessed  the  scene,  though  he  took  no  part  in 
the  perpetration  of  that  dark  deed,  was  a 
friend  of  Wells,  whom  he  had  known  in 
former  years  and  whom  he  regarded  as  a 
brother.  It  was  this  Indian  who  went  to  Fort 
Wayne  after  the  battle  was  over  and  gave 
Mrs.  Wells  the  first  intimation  of  her  hus 
band's  death.  After  doing  so  he  disappeared, 
and  it  was  supposed  that  he  returned  to  his 
tribe,  as  he  was  not  seen  again. 

The  two  younger  officers,  Ensign  George 
Ronan  and  Surgeon  Isaac  Van  Voorhis,  had 
been  all  this  time  gallantly  bearing  their 
part  in  the  unequal  struggle  with  the  savage 
hordes  that  surrounded  them,  and  both  of 
them  had  received  dangerous  wounds.  In  her 
[i43] 


THE    STORY    OF 

account  of  the  battle,  Mrs.  Helm  says  that, 
overwrought  by  his  fighting  and  pain,  the 
surgeon  came  up  and  addressed  her.  He 
had  been  wounded,  his  horse  had  been  shot 
under  him,  and  he  was  in  a  state  of  terror. 
Aware  of  Mrs.  Helm's  lifelong  experience 
with  the  Indians,  though  she  was  much 
younger  than  himself,  he  said  to  her:  "  Do 
you  think  they  will  take  our  lives?  I  am 
badly  wounded,  but  I  think  not  mortally. 
Perhaps  we  might  purchase  our  lives  by 
promising  them  a  large  reward.  Do  you 
think  there  is  any  chance?" 

"Dr.  Van  Voorhis,"  said  the  seventeen- 
year-old  girl,  "do  not  let  us  waste  the  few 
moments  that  yet  remain  to  us  in  such  vain 
hopes.  Our  fate  is  inevitable.  In  a  few 
moments  we  must  appear  before  the  bar  of 
God.  Let  us  make  what  preparation  is  yet  in 
our  power." 

"Oh,  I  cannot  die!"  he  exclaimed.  "I  am 
not  fit  to  die.  If  I  had  but  a  short  time  to 
prepare!  Death  is  awful!"  Mrs.  Helm 
pointed  to  Ensign  Ronan,  who,  though  even 
then  mortally  wounded,  was  down  on  one 
[  i44] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

knee  and  was  still  fighting  with  desperate 
courage. 

"Look  at  that  man,"  she  said.  "At  least 
he  dies  like  a  soldier."  "Yes,"  replied  the 
surgeon,  "but  he  has  no  terrors  of  the  future 
—  he  is  an  unbeliever!" 

The  wounded  surgeon's  fear,  thus  shown 
under  these  trying  circumstances,  was  entirely 
natural.  He  was  then  only  twenty-two  years 
of  age  and  had  entered  the  service  on  the 
frontier  but  the  year  before.  The  bravest  men 
have  often  passed  through  a  similar  expe 
rience  in  moments  of  danger.  An  unbeliever, 
in  his  view,  would  not  concern  himself  with 
the  hereafter;  but  he  considered  that  he  him 
self  was  unfit  to  appear  before  the  bar  of 
God.  What  more  natural  than  that  this  young 
man's  heart  should  fail  him  in  that  supreme 
moment? 

There  was  no  opportunity,  however,  even 
had  he  been  able,  to  show  his  mettle  by  a 
renewed  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of  disaster, 
for  almost  immediately  afterwards  he  was 
tomahawked  by  one  of  the  Indians,  and  was 
seen  dead  on  the  ground  when  Mrs.  Helm 
[i45] 


THE    STORY    OF 

passed  that  way  a  little  time  later  as  the  cap 
tive  of  the  chief  Black  Partridge,  on  their  way 
to  the  river. 

In  an  obituary  notice,  published  in  The 
Political  Index,  November  17,  1812,  at  New- 
burg,  New  York,  there  is  the  following  notice 
of  the  unfortunate  young  surgeon:  " Among 
the  slain  (at  the  Fort  Dearborn  Massacre) 
was  Dr.  Isaac  Van  Voorhis,  of  Fishkill,  sur 
geon  in  the  army.  He  was  a  young  man  of 
great  merit,  and  received  his  early  education 
at  the  academy  in  this  village.  He  possessed 
an  enterprising  and  cultivated  mind,  and  was 
ardent  in  the  support  of  the  interest  and  honor 
of  his  country." 

Ensign  George  Ronan,  who  was  also  only 
twenty-two,  had  entered  the  service  on  the 
frontier  the  previous  year.  He  was  a  graduate 
of  West  Point,  with  the  rank  of  ensign,  cor 
responding  to  that  of  second  lieutenant  in 
the  modern  army  regulations.  He  is  always 
referred  to  as  a  brave  and  enterprising  young 
officer.  He  won  the  admiration  of  all  during 
the  months  previous  to  the  events  here  nar 
rated,  and  especially  for  the  courage  and  devo- 
[146] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

tion  shown  by  him  in  the  last  scene,  when  he 
perished  on  the  field  of  battle. 

From  his  position  on  the  battle-field,  Cap 
tain  Heald  saw  the  Indians  making  signs  to 
him  to  approach  and  consult  with  them. 
Heald  advanced  alone  in  response  to  this 
invitation.  Through  a  half-breed  interpreter, 
Peresh  Leclerc,  he  was  asked  to  surrender  to 
them,  the  Indians  at  the  same  time  promising 
to  spare  the  lives  of  all  the  prisoners.  A  Pota- 
watami  chief,  named  Black  Bird,  was  the 
spokesman  for  the  Indians.  Captain  Heald 
in  his  report  says  that  after  a  few  moments' 
consideration  he  concluded  it  would  be  most 
prudent  to  comply  with  this  request,  although 
he  did  not  put  entire  confidence  in  the  prom 
ise.  In  fact,  Heald  was  reduced  to  extremi 
ties,  and  a  parley  with  the  Indians  was  his 
only  hope.  They  were  surrounded  by  the 
savages,  Lieutenant  Helm  was  wounded  and 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 
who  indeed  had  possession  of  all  the  horses, 
wagons,  and  property  of  every  description, 
besides  having  killed  or  captured  all  the 
women  and  children.  He  was  obliged  to 
[147] 


THE    STORY    OF 

» 

make  the  best  terms  possible,  for  though  a 
surrender  might  be  followed  by  treachery, 
there  was  really  no  other  course  for  him  to 
take. 

The  surrender  was  then  agreed  to  and  the 
fighting  ceased.  The  air  was  rilled  with  the 
shouts  of  the  savages  exulting  over  their  vic 
tory,  while  from  the  wounded  issued  moans 
of  pain,  and  from  the  distance  could  be  heard 
the  wailings  of  cruelly  bereaved  mothers. 

After  delivering  up  their  arms,  the  sur 
vivors  were  taken  back  to  the  encampment  of 
the  Indians  near  the  fort,  and  distributed 
among  the  different  tribes.  The  number  of 
their  warriors,  Heald  said,  was  between  four 
hundred  and  five  hundred,  mostly  of  the 
Potawatami  nation,  and  the  loss  on  their  side 
was  about  fifteen.  There  were  about  sixty  of 
the  whites  killed  in  the  battle  and  the  mas 
sacre  which  followed,  but  when  the  troops 
surrendered  and  the  Indians  promised  that 
the  lives  of  the  survivors  should  be  spared, 
it  was  found  that  the  savages  regarded  the 
wounded  as  exempted  from  this  condition. 
Accordingly,  many  of  the  wounded  were 
[148] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

ruthlessly  tomahawked  after  the  surrender, 
and  in  the  same  evening  five  of  the  soldiers 
were  tortured  to  death.  A  number  of  others 
perished  from  the  privations  they  suffered 
while  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians  during  the 
ensuing  season. 

The  boat  containing  the  Kinzie  family  and 
the  servants  accompanying  them  at  first  kept 
near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  the  occupants 
watching  the  troops  and  the  wagon  train  pass 
ing  along  the  beach  toward  the  south.  They 
heard  the  discharge  of  the  guns  when  the 
Indians  attacked,  and  the  boat's  course  was 
directed  so  as  to  approach  as  nearly  as  pos 
sible  to  the  scene  of  the  fighting.  They  saw 
a  woman  on  horseback  led  by  an  Indian  not 
far  from  the  edge  of  the  water. 

"That  is  Mrs.  Heald,"  cried  Mrs.  Kinzie. 
"That  Indian  will  kill  her.  Run,  Chandon- 
nais,  take  the  mule  that  is  tied  there  and  offer 
it  to  him  to  release  her."  The  Indian  was 
already  attempting  to  take  off  her  bonnet, 
with  the  evident  intention  of  scalping  her,  and 
she  was  resisting  vigorously. 

The   Indian   paused   long  enough   in   the 


THE    STORY    OF 

struggle  to  listen  to  the  offer  made  by  Chan- 
donnais,  who  added  the  promise  of  two  bottles 
of  whiskey  as  soon  as  they  would  reach  their 
destination.  "But,"  said  the  Indian,  "she  is 
badly  wounded  —  she  will  die.  Will  you  give 
me  the  whiskey  at  all  events?"  Chandonnais, 
who  was  well  known  to  the  Indians,  promised 
that  he  would,  and  the  bargain  was  concluded. 
Several  squaws,  keen  for  plunder,  had  fol 
lowed  the  procession  closely,  and  made  an 
ineffectual  attempt  to  rob  Mrs.  Heald  of  her 
shoes  and  stockings.  The  savage  had  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  possession  of  her  bonnet, 
and  placed  it  on  his  own  head.  She  was  taken 
on  board  the  boat,  and  lay  moaning  with  pain 
from  the  wounds  she  had  received. 

As  it  was  impossible  to  continue  their  jour 
ney  under  the  circumstances,  the  boat  and 
its  passengers  returned  to  the  Kinzie  house, 
trusting  to  the  influence  possessed  by  Mr.  Kin 
zie  to  maintain  their  safety.  They  were  joined 
there  by  Mr.  Kinzie,  who  had  escaped  injury 
from  the  savages.  Around  them  gathered  a 
number  of  Indians  still  friendly  to  the  Kinzie 
family,  whose  intentions  were  to  assist  them 
[150] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

in  a  renewed  attempt  to  reach  their  proposed 
destination  at  St.  Joseph. 

Among  the  friendly  Indians  thus  gathered 
was  Black  Partridge,  who  had  rescued  Mrs. 
Helm  and  had  safely  brought  her  to  the  Kin- 
zie  house,  where  she  rejoined  her  family. 

Thus  were  assembled  the  entire  family  of 
John  Kinzie,  except  his  son-in-law,  Lieuten 
ant  Helm.  Mrs.  Heald  and  Mrs.  Helm 
were  both  suffering  from  wounds.  Both 
had  been  attacked  by  the  savages  while 
on  horseback,  the  former  having  perhaps  es 
caped  death,  through  the  ransom  negotiated 
by  Chandonnais,  and  the  other  having  been 
rescued  by  Black  Partridge. 

John  Burns,  with  his  wife  and  infant  child, 
had  lived  in  the  house  west  of  the  Kinzies',  on 
the  north  bank  of  the  river,  and  were  with  the 
troops  at  the  time  of  the  attack.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  Mrs.  Burns  and  her  one-day-old 
infant  had  been  brought  to  the  fort  for  safety 
at  the  time  of  the  Indian  alarm  in  the  pre 
vious  April.  Burns  was  killed  while  with  the 
troops,  but  his  wife  and  child  were  made  cap 
tives  by  one  of  the  chiefs  and  by  him  taken 


THE    STORY    OF 

to  his  village  and  treated  with  great  kindness ; 
but  his  squaw  wife,  excited  by  feelings  of 
jealousy  of  the  favors  shown  to  the  captives, 
attempted  to  kill  the  child  with  a  tomahawk 
thrown  at  it  with  great  force.  The  blow 
narrowly  missed  being  fatal,  but  it  inflicted 
a  wound  the  marks  of  which  she  carried 
through  the  remainder  of  her  life.  The  chief 
prevented  further  attempts  of  the  kind  by  re 
moving  the  captives  to  a  place  of  safety. 
Eventually  the  mother  and  child  found  their 
way  back  to  civilization. 

"Twenty-two  years  after  this,"  writes  the 
younger  Mrs.  Kinzie,  in  Wau-Bun,  "  as  I  was 
on  a  journey  to  Chicago  in  the  steamer 
'  Uncle  Sam,'  a  young  woman,  hearing  my 
name,  introduced  herself  to  me,  and  raising 
the  hair  from  her  forehead,  showed  me  the 
mark  of  the  tomahawrk  which  had  so  nearly 
been  fatal  to  her." 

A  somewhat  similar  case  was  that  of  Mrs. 
Charles  Lee,  whose  husband  owned  the  farm 
on  the  South  Branch  where  the  two  men  were 
murdered  by  Indians  in  the  previous  April. 
His  son,  a  lad  of  twelve  years,  who,  with  the 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

discharged  soldier,  ran  to  the  fort  from  the 
farm  and  gave  the  alarm  on  that  occasion, 
was  also  with  the  troops  in  company  with  his 
father.  Lee  and  his  son  were  both  killed  in 
the  battle,  but  Mrs.  Lee  and  her  young  child 
were  captured,  and  later  came  into  the  pos 
session  of  Black  Partridge.  This  "  knightly 
rescuer  of  women"  proved  the  worth  of  his 
friendship  toward  the  whites  in  the  case  of 
Mrs.  Lee  and  her  child,  as  he  had  already 
done  in  the  rescue  of  Mrs.  Helm. 

The  story  of  John  Cooper,  surgeon's  mate 
at  Fort  Dearborn,  was  similar  in  many  of  its 
details  to  that  of  others  in  the  battle.  Cooper 
was  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  two  young 
daughters,  the  elder  of  whom  was  named  Isa 
bella.  Cooper  was  among  the  killed,  and 
when  the  Indians  made  a  rush  for  the  women 
and  children  in  the  wagons,  a  young  Indian 
boy  attempted  to  carry  off  Isabella,  but 
encountered  so  lively  a  resistance  that  he 
was  obliged  to  throw  her  down.  He  suc 
ceeded  in  scalping  her,  and  would  have  killed 
her  outright  had  not  an  old  squaw  prevented 
him.  The  squaw,  who  knew  the  Cooper  f  am- 
[153] 


THE    STORY    OF 

ily,  took  Mrs.  Cooper  and  her  children  to  her 
wigwam  and  cured  the  girl  of  her  wound. 

The  family  remained  in  captivity  two  years, 
when  they  were  ransomed.  They  afterwards 
lived  in  Detroit.  The  mark  of  the  wound 
on  the  girl's  head  caused  by  the  young 
Indian's  scalping  knife  was  about  the  size  of 
a  silver  dollar,  and,  of  course,  remained  with 
her  through  her  life. 

An  infant  of  six  months  was  with  its  mother 
among  the  survivors  of  that  dreadful  day. 
Corporal  Simmons  had  with  him  on  the 
march  his  wife  and  two  children,  the  eldest 
a  boy  of  two  years,  and  a  little  girl  an  infant 
in  its  mother's  arms.  The  mother  and  her 
children  were  in  the  army  wagon,  which  was 
entered  by  the  Indian,  who  despatched  the 
children  as  rapidly  as  he  could  reach  them. 
Mrs.  Simmons,  while  not  able  to  save  her 
boy,  succeeded  in  concealing  the  baby  in  a 
shawl  behind  her,  and  the  child  survived  the 
scenes  of  that  day.  The  corporal  himself  was 
among  those  who  were  slain. 

When  the  division  of  prisoners  took  place 
after  the  action  Mrs.  Simmons  was  carried  off 
[154] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

by  the  Indians  to  Green  Bay,  the  whole  dis 
tance  to  which  she  walked,  carrying  her 
child  in  her  arms.  On  arriving  at  their  des 
tination  the  captives  were  required  to  "  run 
the  gauntlet/'  according  to  the  brutal  custom 
of  the  savages,  but  in  doing  so  she  was  able 
to  protect  her  precious  charge  by  bending 
over  it  as  she  held  it  in  her  arms.  She 
received  many  cruel  blows  and  half  dead  she 
reached  the  goal  where  a  friendly  squaw  gave 
her  and  her  child  a  kind  reception.  In  the 
following  year,  after  many  weary  wanderings, 
Mrs.  Simmons  reached  a  frontier  post  in  Ohio 
and  was  at  length  set  at  liberty. 

This  child  grew  up  and  became  the  wife 
of  Moses  Winans,  and  in  later  life  she  and 
her  husband  lived  in  California,  but  she  never 
returned  to  Chicago  again.  She  died  in  1903, 
at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety  years. 

Of  the  nine  women  who  set  out  with  the 
troops,  two  were  killed;  the  others,  except 
Mrs.  Heald  and  Mrs.  Helm,  were  carried  off 
by  the  savages,  and  some  did  not  survive  the 
hardships  of  the  life  they  were  compelled  to 
undergo.  There  were  eighteen  children,  of 
[155] 


THE    STORY    OF 

whom  twelve  were  killed  outright,  and  but 
few  of  the  others  were  ever  heard  of. 

The  following  fall  and  winter  the  British, 
then  in  possession  of  Detroit,  were  urged  by 
some  of  the  American  residents  of  that  place 
to  exert  their  influence  among  their  Indian 
allies  to  return  the  captives  to  the  custody  of 
the  British  military  authorities.  Tardy  efforts 
were  made,  and  at  length  the  agent  who  was 
appointed  for  that  work  reported  that  he  had 
gathered  at  the  St.  Joseph  River  seventeen 
soldiers,  four  women,  and  some  children. 
There  were,  however,  several  other  survivors 
not  included  among  those  whom  the  British 
agent  was  able  to  find,  as  appears  from  some 
other  accounts.  The  soldiers  were  taken  to 
Detroit  and  became  prisoners  of  war,  but 
their  condition  was  thus  only  slightly  ame 
liorated.  Young  John  Kinzie,  then  a  lad  ten 
years  of  age,  recalled  that  while  his  father's 
family  were  living  in  their  own  house  at  De 
troit  during  that  winter,  themselves  practically 
prisoners  of  war,  he  saw  the  miserable  cap 
tives  suffering  from  exposure  in  the  severe 
cold  weather  without  adequate  shelter,  and 
[156] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

but  little  could  be  done  for  them  by  their 
American  friends. 

The  perils  surrounding  the  Kinzie  family 
when  they  were  once  more  gathered  under  the 
family  roof  were  of  the  most  serious  charac 
ter.  Here  were  assembled  a  company  of  the 
survivors  after  a  day  of  excitement,  blood 
shed,  and  distress  hardly  to  be  paralleled  in 
the  lives  of  civilized  people.  Across  the  river 
from  the  Kinzie  house  could  be  seen  the  vic 
torious  savages  indulging  in  wild  antics,  shout 
ing  and  dancing  exultantly,  ransacking  and 
plundering  the  buildings  within  the  fort,  and 
preparing  to  torture  some  of  the  prisoners 
to  death.  They  had  arrayed  themselves  in 
women's  hats,  shawls,  and  ribbons,  and  filled 
the  air  with  their  savage  outcries. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  house  and 
its  inmates  were  closely  guarded  by  their 
Indian  friends,  and  that  Black  Partridge  and 
other  friendly  Indians  had  established  them 
selves  in  the  porch  of  the  building  as  sentinels, 
to  protect  the  family  from  any  evil  that  the 
young  men  of  the  tribes  might  endeavor  to 
commit,  their  peril  was  extreme.  Everything 


THE    STORY    OF 

remained  tranquil,  however,  during  the  day, 
and  the  following  night  was  passed  in  com 
parative  freedom  from  alarms. 

The  next  day  the  Indians  set  fire  to  the  fort 
and  the  entire  place  was  consumed.  A  party 
of  Indians  from  the  Wabash  arrived  at  this 
time,  having  heard  of  the  intended  evacua 
tion  of  the  fort,  and  eager  to  share  in 
the  plunder.  They  were  disappointed  and 
enraged  on  finding  that  their  arrival  was  too 
late,  that  the  spoils  had  been  divided,  and 
the  scalps  all  taken.  These  Indians  had  no 
particular  regard  for  the  Kinzies,  and  it  at 
once  became  evident  that  their  presence  boded 
destruction  to  the  devoted  inmates  of  the  house. 
They  blackened  their  faces  and  proceeded  to 
the  Kinzie  house  as  the  most  promising  spot 
to  carry  out  their  plundering  and  bloodthirsty 
designs. 

Black  Partridge  was  especially  anxious  in 
behalf  of  Mrs.  Helm,  whose  safety  he  wished 
to  assure.  By  his  directions  she  disguised  her 
self  and  took  refuge  in  the  house  of  Ouil- 
mette.  Ouilmette,  being  a  Frenchman,  and 
living  with  an  Indian  wife,  was  never  molested 
[158] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

by  the  Indians  at  any  time,  being  regarded 
as  one  of  themselves. 

The  Indians  approached  this  house  first 
and  entered  without  ceremony.  Mrs.  Bisson, 
sister  of  Ouilmette's  wife,  hastily  concealed 
Mrs.  Helm  by  covering  her  with  a  feather 
bed.  She  then  took  her  seat  in  front  of  the 
bed  and  occupied  herself  with  her  sewing. 
The  Indians  looked  into  every  part  of  the 
room,  but  did  not  raise  the  feather  mattress 
under  which  Mrs.  Helm  was  lying,  half 
smothered.  Mrs.  Bisson  was  in  terror  for  her 
own  safety,  but  bravely  maintained  an  air  of 
indifference  during  this  trying  ordeal,  and 
presently  the  Indians  left  the  house. 

They  then  went  over  to  the  Kinzie  dwell 
ing,  entered  the  principal  room,  and  seated 
themselves  on  the  floor  in  ominous  silence. 
Black  Partridge  then  spoke  in  a  low  voice  to 
Waubansee,  who  was  with  him  as  one  of  the 
guards,  and  said:  "We  have  endeavored  to 
save  our  friends,  but  it  is  in  vain  —  nothing 
will  save  them  now." 

At  that  moment  a  friendly  whoop,  loud  and 
clear,  was  heard  from  the  bank  of  the  river 
[159] 


THE    STORY    OF 

opposite  to  the  house,  and  Black  Partridge 
instantly  arose  and  ran  toward  the  landing, 
calling  out,  "Who  are  you?"  "I  am  the 
Sauganash,"  came  the  reply.  Black  Partridge 
replied,  "Then  make  all  speed  to  the  house; 
your  friend  is  in  danger,  and  you  alone  can 
save  him." 

Sauganash,  also  known  as  Billy  Caldwell, 
was  a  half-breed  and  was  a  chief  of  the  Pota- 
watami  tribe,  and  a  man  of  great  influence 
among  the  Indians.  He  was  not  present  at 
the  evacuation  and  massacre  of  the  day  before, 
but  had  come  in  time  to  save  the  lives  of  many 
of  the  prisoners.  With  him  had  come  the 
chief  Shabbona,  who  also  used  his  influence 
in  moderating  the  brutality  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  tribes. 

The  Sauganash  hastened  across  the  river, 
while  the  threatening  savages  waited  in  won 
der  for  his  appearance.  He  calmly  entered 
the  room,  stood  his  rifle  behind  the  door,  and 
gazed  about  him  at  the  silent  savages  squat 
ting  on  the  floor.  He  boldly  asked  them  why 
they  had  blackened  their  faces.  "  Is  it  that 
you  are  mourning  for  the  friends  you  have 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

lost  in  battle?"  -thus  purposely  misunder 
standing  their  evil  designs,  which  he  easily 
penetrated.  "Or  is  it,"  he  continued,  "  that 
you  are  fasting?  If  so,  ask  our  friend  here, 
and  he  will  give  you  to  eat.  He  is  the  Indians' 
friend,  and  never  yet  refused  them  what  they 
had  need  of." 

The  savages  were  taken  by  surprise  at  this 
speech,  and  none  among  them  had  the  courage 
to  say  what  the  purpose  was  in  their  minds. 
One  of  them  answered  that  they  had  come  to 
ask  for  some  white  cotton  cloth  in  which  they 
might  wrap  the  bodies  of  their  dead  friends 
before  placing  them  in  their  graves.  As  soon 
as  this  was  said  they  were  provided  with  a 
quantity  of  cloth,  and  to  the  relief  of  everyone 
they  took  their  departure  peaceably. 

Quartermaster  Sergeant  William  Griffith 
escaped  the  general  massacre  by  a  series  of 
remarkable  strokes  of  good  fortune.  While 
the  troops  were  leaving  the  fort  it  was  dis; 
covered  that  the  horses  carrying  the  sur 
geon's  apparatus  and  medicines  had  strayed 
off.  Griffith  went  to  search  for  them  and 
bring  them  up,  but  being  unsuccessful,  he 
[161] 


THE    STORY    OF 

hastened  to  join  the  column  on  foot.  Before 
he  had  proceeded  very  far  he  was  met  and 
made  a  prisoner  by  the  chief  Topenebe,  who 
was  friendly  to  the  whites.  The  chief  took 
him  to  the  river  and  put  him  in  a  canoe,  pad 
dled  it  across  the  river  and  told  him  to  hide 
himself  in  the  thick  woods  on  the  north  side. 

The  next  day  he  cautiously  appeared  in  the 
vicinity  of  Ouilmette's  house,  and  the  place 
seeming  to  be  quiet,  he  entered  the  cabin  at 
the  rear.  This  was  just  after  the  Wabash 
Indians  had  left  the  house  for  that  of  Mr. 
Kinzie. 

The  family  were  greatly  alarmed  at  his 
appearance,  and  he  was  at  once  stripped  of 
his  army  uniform;  he  was  arrayed  in  a  suit 
of  deerskin,  with  belt,  moccasins,  and  pipe, 
like  a  French  engage.  His  dark  complexion 
and  black  whiskers  favored  the  disguise,  and 
all  were  instructed  to  address  him  in  French, 
although  he  was  ignorant  of  the  language.  In 
this  character  he  joined  the  Kinzie  family 
and  with  them  eventually  reached  a  place  of 
safety. 

After  the  surrender  Captain   Heald  was 
[162] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

kept  unmolested,  quite  fortunately  being 
given  into  the  custody  of  an  Indian  from  the 
Kankakee,  who,  it  seems,  had  known  him 
previously,  and  who  had  formed  an  attach 
ment  for  him.  The  Indian  at  once  made  plans 
for  his  escape,  and  soon  Captain  Heald  was 
placed  in  a  canoe  and  taken  to  St.  Joseph. 
Here  he  was  joined  by  Mrs.  Heald,  and  they 
both  pursued  their  journey  up  the  east  coast 
of  Lake  Michigan  to  Mackinac,  where  Cap 
tain  Heald  delivered  himself  up  as  a  prisoner 
of  war  to  the  British  commandant,  by  whom 
he  was  well  treated  and  released  on  parole. 
Later  in  the  season  he  found  means  to 
reach  Louisville,  where  Mrs.  Heald's  father, 
Colonel  Samuel  Wells,  resided.  It  had  been 
supposed  that  both  Heald  and  his  wife  had 
perished  in  the  massacre,  and  their  appear 
ance  was  as  if  they  had  awakened  from  the 
dead. 

In  due  course  of  time  Heald  was  exchanged, 
and  again  entered  the  service  with  the  rank 
of  Major.  He  never  got  rid  of  the  effects  of 
his  wound,  and  in  1817  he  resigned  his  com 
mission  in  the  army  and  removed  with  his 
[163] 


THE    STORY    OF 

family  to  a  small  town  in  Missouri,  where  he 
died  a  few  years  later. 

Lieutenant  Helm,  who  was  among  the 
wounded  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  had 
the  good  fortune  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
some  friendly  Indians,  and  was  taken  to 
Peoria.  He  was  liberated  through  the  inter 
vention  of  Thomas  Forsyth,  the  half-brother 
of  Mr.  Kinzie,  who  was  the  Indian  agent 
at  that  place.  Forsyth  had  great  influence 
with  the  Potawatamis.  "  He  had  been  raised 
with  this  nation,"  says  Reynolds,  "  spoke  their 
language  well,  and  was  well  acquainted  with 
their  character."  He  advanced  the  amount 
demanded  by  the  Indians  for  Helm's  ransom, 
and  had  him  sent  to  St.  Louis  in  safety.  In 
this  important  and  dangerous  service  Forsyth 
risked  his  life  every  moment  he  was  engaged 
in  it,  for  the  Indians  at  that  time  were  in  a 
highly  inflamed  condition. 

Eventually  Lieutenant  Helm  rejoined  His 
wife  at  Detroit. 

The  final  scene  in  the  story  of  old  Fort 
Dearborn  was  the  departure  of  the  Kinzie 
family  and  their  retinue  of  servants  on  the 
[164] 


A      ,. 


\r~ 


•'.te?,',1 
.  \. 


• 


')LD    FORT    DEARBORN 

tf4tf  5  v:*  ?* s^and  massacre.    The 
"  l^tijf  had  been  destroyed 

1  J.g  JI-lpl^lfB^f |!and  lherc  were  now 
f|^f^|°  J-  Tf'e  house,  the  Ouil- 

«!'!^?\t '- J "l^Js'^f u?e  late'y  occupied 
Z II .- f  ^^^  "  ?  ^!|'^f1te  anci  child  on  the 
S1"?c  ir,  and  that  lately 

his  family  near 


C    5s 

d  s 


«-»M    *^      *    «*-        "  of  Mr.  Kin- 

^llfff-ll^f*§fi^ifvan^ and  derks 

^n*W#fii3i||  eltlwfttifilrft,  were  placed  on 
board  of  a  boat  of  sufficient  capacity  to  accom- 
^;ate  them  all,  and  they  thus  took  thH- 

?  S :s  S  S  §-^    -3 1^  r  fe  r^  .f  >  ^  \tf  wAl^l^-  t  Aw^ilS  5  5 


S^^  .^  ^5 

Q  a  ^  - 
§  « 


5  *  ^t?  •§  S  ^5      "i  k      fc  C  "  e  -^     *  ^  c  ' 


er  2- 


^ 


r"'    ~      "•' 


(f  a>  \f 

£5S 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

third  day  after  the  battle  and  massacre.  The 
fort  and  the  agency  house  had  been  destroyed 
by  fire  on  the  second  day,  and  there  were  now 
remaining  only  the  Kinzie  house,  the  Ouil- 
mette  cabin  near  it,  the  house  lately  occupied 
by  John  Burns  and  his  wife  and  child  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  main  river,  and  that  lately 
occupied  by  Charles  Lee  and  his  family  near 
the  mouth  of  the  river. 

On  the  eighteenth  the  family  of  Mr.  Kin 
zie,  together  with  the  servants  and  clerks 
in  his  trading  establishment,  were  placed  on 
board  of  a  boat  of  sufficient  capacity  to  accom 
modate  them  all,  and  they  thus  took  their 
departure  from  the  scene  of  so  many  calami 
ties.  There  were  left  in  the  vicinity  only 
Ouilmette  and  his  family,  who  were  the  sole 
inhabitants  of  Chicago  until  the  arrival,  some 
time  later,  of  a  French  trader  named  Du  Pin, 
who  took  possession  of  the  unoccupied  Kinzie 
house  and  lived  in  it.  The  length  of  his  stay 
is  not  recorded. 

The  Indians  now  began  to  realize  the  folly 
of  breaking  up  a  station  which  to  them  was 
an  abundant  source  of  supplies,  where  they 
[165] 


THE    STORY    OF 

could  come  and  obtain  ammunition,  provi 
sions  and  clothing  in  exchange  for  their  furs. 
They  would  henceforth  be  obliged  to  depend 
upon  the  small  resources  of  the  St.  Joseph 
trading  post  or  travel  to  Detroit. 

All  this  had  been  foreseen  by  the  older  and 
wiser  men  among  them,  but  the  hot-blooded 
young  men  of  the  tribes  were  intent  on  plun 
der  and  the  ghastly  trophies  represented  by 
the  scalps  of  their  victims,  and  they  could  not 
be  restrained.  There  was  now  little  induce 
ment  to  visit  the  post  at  Chicago ;  consequently 
the  great  numbers  that  formerly  assembled  in 
the  neighborhood  scattered  to  remote  places 
and  eked  out  a  precarious  existence  by  fishing 
and  hunting. 

The  Indians  also  found  that  the  friendship 
of  the  British  was  a  poor  dependence  as  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  Americans,  who  were 
the  only  governmental  authority  with  whom 
they  could  make  treaties,  and  through  whom 
they  could  obtain  recognition  and  satisfaction 
for  their  claims  of  territorial  ownership. 

The  following  episode  has  been  relegated 
to  this  late  portion  of  the  narrative,  as  belong- 
[166] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

ing  more  to  the  echoes  of  the  battle  on  the 
lake  shore  than  to  the  battle  itself. 

Mrs.  Lee  was  one  of  the  women  taken  by 
the  Indians  when  her  husband  and  son  had 
been  killed  at  the  massacre,  as  already  nar 
rated.  She  had  with  her  a  daughter  twelve 
years  old  and  an  infant.  These  were  claimed 
by  our  old  friend  Black  Partridge  under  the 
following  circumstances:  The  daughter  had 
been  placed  on  horseback  for  the  march  and 
tied  fast  for  fear  she  would  slip  off  the  sad 
dle.  When  the  action  was  at  its  height  she 
was  severely  wounded  by  a  musket  ball ;  and 
the  horse,  becoming  frightened,  set  off  at  a 
gallop.  The  girl  was  partly  thrown  off,  but 
was  held  fast  by  the  bands,  and  hung  dangling 
until  she  was  met  by  Black  Partridge,  who 
caught  the  horse  and  disengaged  her  from  the 
saddle.  The  chief  had  known  the  family  and 
was  greatly  attached  to  this  little  girl,  whom 
he  recognized  at  once. 

On    finding    that    she    was    so    seriously 

wounded   that   she   could   not    recover,    and 

that,  besides,  she  was  suffering  great  agony, 

he  put  the  finishing  stroke  to  her  at  once 

[167] 


THE    STORY    OF 

with  his  tomahawk.  He  said  afterwards  that 
this  was  one  of  the  hardest  things  he  ever 
attempted  to  do,  but  that  he  did  it  because 
he  could  not  bear  to  see  her  suffer. 

Black  Partridge  then  took  the  mother  and 
her  infant  to  his  village  on  the  Au  Sable, 
where  he  became  warmly  attached  to  the  for 
mer;  "so  much  so,"  relates  the  author  of 
Wau-Bun,  " that  he  wished  to  marry  her; 
but  as  she  very  naturally  objected,  he  treated 
her  with  the  greatest  respect  and  considera 
tion."  He  was  not  disposed  to  liberate  her 
from  captivity,  however,  hoping  that  in  time 
he  could  prevail  upon  her  to  become  his  wife. 

During  the  following  winter  the  child 
became  ill,  and  was  not  restored  by  ordi 
nary  cures.  Black  Partridge  then  offered  to 
take  the  child  to  Chicago,  where  the  French 
trader  named  Du  Pin,  who  had  arrived  after 
the  massacre,  was  then  living  in  the  Kin- 
zie  house,  and  obtain  medical  aid  from  him. 
Accordingly  the  child  was  warmly  wrapped, 
and  the  chief  carried  his  precious  charge  all 
the  way  in  his  arms. 

Arriving  at  the  residence  of  M.  du  Pin,  he 
[168] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

carefully  placed  the  child  on  the  floor.  "  What 
have  you  there?  "  asked  the  trader.  "  A  young 
raccoon,  which  I  have  brought  you  as  a  pres 
ent,"  replied  the  chief.  Then  opening  the 
pack,  he  displayed  the  little  sick  child.  M. 
du  Pin  furnished  some  remedies  for  its  com 
plaint  and  when  Black  Partridge  was  about 
to  return  he  told  the  trader  of  his  proposal 
to  Mrs.  Lee  to  become  his  wife,  and  of  the 
way  it  had  been  received. 

M.  du  Pin,  being  a  man  of  discernment, 
"  entertained  some  fears,"  continues  the  Wau- 
Bun  account,  "  that  the  chief's  honorable  reso 
lution  might  not  hold  out,  to  leave  it  to  the 
lady  herself  whether  to  accept  his  addresses 
or  not,  so  he  entered  at  once  into  a  negotiation 
for  her  ransom,  and  so  effectually  wrought 
upon  the  good  feelings  of  Black  Partridge 
that  he  consented  to  bring  his  fair  prisoner 
at  once  to  Chicago,  that  she  might  be  restored 
to  her  friends." 

Mrs.  Lee  accordingly  was  brought  to  Chi 
cago  and  had  an  opportunity  of  expressing 
her  gratitude  to  the  French  trader  who  had, 
without  having  seen  her  or  known  her,  ren- 
[169] 


THE    STORY    OF 

dered  so  important  a  service  as  paying  a  ran 
som  for  her  return  to  civilization.  In  course 
of  time  this  M.  du  Pin,  who  it  seems  was  a 
man  without  a  family  when  he  came,  pro 
posed  to  Mrs.  Lee  himself,  and,  more  fortu 
nate  than  the  dusky  chieftain,  he  was  accepted. 
"We  only  know,"  says  the  Wau-Bun  account, 
"that  in  process  of  time  Mrs.  Lee  became 
Madame  du  Pin,  and  that  they  lived  together 
in  great  happiness  for  many  years  after." 

It  is  a  relief,  after  narrating  the  events  con 
nected  with  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Dearborn 
and  the  massacre  which  followed  it,  to  invite 
the  reader's  attention  to  this  picture,  as  a  con 
trast  with  the  havoc  and  dismay  of  that  dread 
ful  day  in  August,  1812,  when  Chicago  was 
left  with  but  one  white  inhabitant,  and  he  a 
renegade. 

At  St.  Joseph  the  Kinzie  family  remained 
under  the  protection  of  Chief  Topenebe  and 
his  band  until  the  following  November.  They 
were  then  conducted  to  Detroit  under  the 
escort  of  trusty  Indian  friends,  and  delivered 
up  as  prisoners  of  war  to  the  British.  Soon 
after  John  Kinzie  was  paroled,  though  after- 
[170] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

wards  again  taken  into  custody.  At  the  end 
of  the  war  he  was  finally  released,  and  in 
1816  he  again  became  a  resident  of  Chicago, 
when  the  second  Fort  Dearborn  was  built  and 
occupied  by  a  garrison  of  United  States  troops. 

After  the  destruction  of  Fort  Dearborn, 
Chicago  ceased  for  a  time  to  be  a  fit  dwelling- 
place  for  white  men  and  their  families.  It 
continued  in  this  condition  with  but  little 
change  for  the  following  four  years,  and 
then  the  troops  came  back.  Meanwhile  peace 
had  been  concluded  between  the  two  warring 
nations,  treaties  of  peace  and  friendship  had 
been  made  with  various  tribes  of  Indians, 
and  a  new  era  began. 

During  the  winter  succeeding  the  battle 
and  massacre  the  only  two  residents  of  Chi 
cago  who  were  householders  were  Ouilmette 
and  Du  Pin.  A  pretty  fair  estimate  may  be 
made  of  the  total  population  of  the  place,  in 
cluding  the  half-breed  children  of  Ouilmette 
and  the  engages  and  helpers  in  the  employ  of 
Du  Pin.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  total  num 
ber  was  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  persons. 

Bloody  retribution  overtook  at  least  one  of 

[170 


THE    STORY    OF 

those  among  the  savages  who  on  the  day  of 
the  massacre  showed  no  mercy  to  his  victims. 
This  was  a  chief  known  as  a  deadly  enemy 
of  the  whites  and  who  bore  the  expressive 
name  of  Shavehead,  because  of  his  peculiar 
manner  of  tying  up  his  scanty  hair.  Years 
afterwrards  Chief  Shavehead  was  in  company 
with  a  band  of  hunters  in  the  Michigan 
woods;  in  the  party  was  a  white  man  who 
had  formerly  been  a  soldier  at  Fort  Dear 
born,  and  was  one  of  the  survivors  of  the 
battle  on  the  lake  shore.  At  one  of  the  camp- 
fires  the  chief,  being  of  a  boastful  disposition, 
related,  while  under  the  influence  of  liquor, 
to  those  sitting  about  the  camp-fire,  the  fright 
ful  tale  concerning  the  events  of  that  day, 
dwelling  upon  its  horrors  and  boasting  of  his 
own  deeds.  He  was  not  aware  that  one  of  the 
whites  whom  he  had  so  fiercely  assailed  was 
at  that  moment  listening  to  his  braggart  utter 
ances.  The  old  soldier,  as  he  heard  the  tale, 
was  maddened  by  the  recall  of  the  well- 
remembered  scenes. 

Toward  nightfall  the  old  savage  departed 
alone  in  the  direction  of  the  forest.     Silently 
[172] 


OLD    FORT    DEARBORN 

the  soldier  with  loaded  rifle  followed  upon 
his  steps.  Others  observed  them  as  they  passed 
out  of  sight  into  the  shades  of  the  forest.  The 
soldier  returned  after  a  time  to  his  com 
panions,  but  Shavehead  was  never  again  seen. 
"  He  had  paid  the  penalty  of  the  crime,"  says 
Mason,  "  to  one  who  could  with  some  fitness 
exact  it." 

The  War  of  1812,  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  was  actually  begun 
some  time  before  the  date  of  the  declaration 
of  war  issued  by  the  United  States,  on  June 
18,  1812;  and  it  was  continued  some  time 
after  the  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed, 
December  24,  1814.  Of  this  war,  the  Fort 
Dearborn  massacre  on  August  15,  1812,  was 
one  of  the  disastrous  events. 

"The  lives  of  thirty  thousand  Americans," 
says  Larned,  "were  sacrificed  during  this  war 
of  two  and  a  half  years,  and  the  national 
debt  was  increased  one  hundred  millions  of 
dollars." 

Nine  years  cover  the  period  of  existence 
of  Old  Fort  Dearborn.  In  that  nine  years 
of  history  it  witnessed  the  efforts  of  three 
[173.1 


THE    STORY    OF 

nations  to  subdue  a  continent,  and  played  its 
part  in  the  struggles  between  those  nations. 
Established  as  a  frontier  post,  it  became  an 
important  link  in  the  chain  of  western  de 
fenses,  and  one  of  those  schools  of  military 
instruction  in  which  lessons  were  learned  by 
those  who  had  the  task  of  preserving  by  force 
of  arms  a  young  republic  in  the  midst  of 
powerful  and  unscrupulous  foes.  A  rallying 
point  for  traders  and  settlers  in  the  virgin 
fields  of  the  west,  it  was  representative  of  a 
phase  of  development  of  the  great  Northwest 
Territory,  and  indeed  of  the  development  of 
the  United  States.  Its  culminating  disaster, 
which  left  it  a  heap  of  ruins,  was  one  of  those 
temporary  setbacks  which  do  not  for  long 
hold  back  the  progress  of  such  a  growing 
nation.  Within  four  years  after  the  accident 
of  war  had  made  the  fort  and  those  in  and 
about  it  the  victims  of  a  lingering  barbarism, 
the  foothold  of  the  nation  was  secure  in  the 
west,  the  beginnings  of  its  agricultural  and 
commercial  prosperity  were  laid,  and  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  old  fort  rose  the  walls  of  a 
new  Fort  Dearborn. 

THE  END. 


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